Don Cornwell: Top Ten List for Career Success

Don Cornwell: Top Ten List for Career Success
by Ben Gross

A previous speaker told us that we all have an inner genius, a personal set of skills that makes us unique, which helps us find work that we enjoy and in which we excel.

So, how do we know what our inner genius is?  For some of us, that’s easy.  We may have been playing golf since we were 3 or solving complex differential equations before we knew that the Tooth Fairy didn’t exist.

Still, for a lot of us, finding our inner genius is a little bit more complicated.  That’s where Don Cornwell comes in.

Don is the Associate Director at the Emory University Career Center, and he spends his days working with college students to help them discover what it is that they will find rewarding as a career.

Don recently came to Grady High to speak with the students about the process of laying the groundwork for a successful career.  Don began by telling the students that he himself did not know what he wanted to do for a long time; he said that in his experience working with college students, it’s common not to “know what you want to be when you grow up.”  Don explained that even if you don’t know exactly what you want to do, there are certain practices which will help guide you in the right direction.

Doing his best Dave Letterman imitation, Don presented the students with a Top Ten List for Career Success:

1.  Believe in yourself
2.  Become a life long learner
3.  Be ethical…in everything you do
4.  Listen to your heart
5.  Get experience
6.  Challenge yourself
7.  Appreciate diversity
8.  Build relationships, find mentors
9.  Make good grades/Do good work
10. Be a team player and develop leadership skills

And, he told the students to always keep an eye open for opportunities and to approach every situation with enthusiasm and dedication.  Don told the class: “if you do your best and make the most of every opportunity, one thing tends to lead to another and good things are never too far away.”

• Telling your story motivated me to be more serious about my education.
• The most important thing that I’ll always remember is never give up and listen to my heart.
• What really got my attention is that you overcame a bad lifestyle and that is inspiring for all of us.
• Your story and information was so helpful.Being a less than 3.0 student, you are proof that if you just put your mind to something and try hard, you can become someone.
• It was a very inspiring and enlightening story and it really inspired me to apply myself academically in order to achieve my goals in life.
• You were very inspirational and influential, thank you so much.
• Thank you for letting me realize you don’t have to choose what you want to do in a rush and that what you choose to do if you love it you won’t regret it.