I Wish I Had Known Earlier

"What do you hear engineers wish they had known earlier in their lives?" Someone asked me that question yesterday.

Two answers popped into my mind.

1. Engineers I talk with wish they would have listened and followed their intuition (or gut, inner voice, inner wisdom) more often along their career path and in their lives.

As they discover their stories during us working together, evidence appears that engineers (even before they became engineers) were good at listening to their inner voices. Some even used it as a sign to slow down, stop and evaluate the situation and their desire for the future.

Like the Plan-Do-Check-Act process.

"When I was in college, I was taking this class that I thought would be interesting but turned out to be pretty boring. And one day something was telling me I would not be happy doing that kind of work long term, so I changed my major to do what I'd already been doing after school." One engineer said.

He wished he would have focused more on understanding and harnessing the power of his own inner voice. Just because we have it, doesn't mean we know how to use it intentionally.

2. Engineers I talk with wish they would have continued, after graduating, to explore who they were, as a person, as a human being. 

Instead of focusing on their engineering careers and how to be a successful engineer, they wish they would have spent equal or more time in figuring out who they wanted to become - as a husband, as a parent, as a leader AND as a successful engineer.

"I wish I would have known how to use my engineering skills to start a successful relationship and how to build one. It's one thing to know how to fix something (even a relationship) after there's a problem. But I wish I would have seen the value then in how to build something that would last and be strong enough to survive future problems."

"I wish I would have known the skill that I am learning right now from you Andrea: how to gather skills and knowledge to solve my next problem before it happens."

"What do you hear #engineers wish they had known earlier in their lives?"