If I knew then … The value of hindsight

Although I decided that the academic life wasn’t for me, the experience has provided the foundation on which my current business is built. I’ve been where you are. Or somewhere like it.

I was a reasonably successful sociologist. But I didn’t do everything right. None of us does. We all make mistakes. The difference between the successful and the unsuccessful is what they do with those mistakes.

I don’t know about you, but no one really told me how academe worked. I knew bits of it. I got some good advice from time to time. And sometimes I knew there was information I was missing and I asked for it. But I didn’t always find it.

So I learned about how a successful academic career works by trying things and making mistakes. Mistakes helped me sort out the myths from the solid advice. Mistakes helped me see what the better path might have been.

Not all of my learning happened that way. But some of it did. I’ve decided to do a series of “If I knew then…” posts to share what I learned with you so that you can learn from my mistakes, too.