What do you aspire to be? That is a tall question. How you answer that as a child, starting out in your career, or later on when you have choices to make, may change.
My Dad was an aerospace engineer at Grumman for over 30 years. We grew up with model planes and photos in the house. Sometimes his work was secret, and he couldn't talk about it.
I once asked my father, "Why didn't you ever become a vice president?"
He said he had the opportunities, but turned them down.
“Why,” I wanted to know?
“I love to draw planes,” he said
I thought he was crazy. But years later I realized the wisdom in his words. He knew what gave him energy, and he was good at it. He was proud of working on the team that designed the F-14 Tomcat, the plane in the movie "Top Gun"[1]. And he wanted to stick with it. The more senior roles would have taken him away from that.
Pay attention to what you love to do. It may be more important to who you are than the next rung on the corporate success ladder
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