Consulting is a great career to get into. You travel the world, get the advise the heads of industry and government, get to see your ideas become reality and...
Ah, but that's not you is it. You've just started - so your name is mud.
Sorry 'bout that but there's no easy way to say it. No matter how well you learned in school, where you studied or what your grades were - you have to pay your dues.
Not an easy thing for a multi-tasking, connected member of generation Google to hear is it? But true it is...
Your first activity - learn the craft. Watch, work and wonder.
Watch the game masters. How they deal with clients, the gentle art of persuasion, creating momentuum, selling ideas and turning talent into cashflow. Fascinating study, and definitely not learned in books.
Remember that the masters of the game are not just those people you work with, but the ones who influenced them. Read Weiss, Maister, Eldridge, subscribe to "A" consulting bloggers, get a mentor.
Work harder than you thought possible. The work matters, it really matters. You get real experience from doing it - not from watching it be done.
So write the reports, get them rejected - and write them again. Do the presentation, field the hard questions, get shot down by clients, take a difficult and undeliverable result and get it accepted, and get in and work through the nasty details of solution creation. Wonderful stuff!
Wonder how the "gurus" got to be so good, and how you could follow in their footsteps.
"Wonder" is the realm of the "could be". Use it wisely. Wonder what the client is thinking to ask for such a thing, or what they will need next, or what could solve problems they are yet to come to grips with personally, or even how you could open up your own firm...
Then act. Act with overwhelming direction and determination.
The world really is a product of our will.
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