Learning from mistakes: a personal reflection on growth

¶ … St. Paul's, we believe that learning from mistakes is an important part of growing up. Tell us about a time when you "stumbled" in life. How did you handle it? What did you learn

"Money does not bring happiness," says an old proverb. "Though, money maintains it" would be a modern and common belief. The role of wealth in one's existence is different for each and every one of us, as its importance depends on one's personal vision of life.

There are things whose value cannot be measured in terms of costs. Feelings like love and happiness, personal values and positive attitudes cannot be bought and cannot be sold. Yet, money remains important, as, whatever we like it or not, it is the expression of power and achievement in nowadays society. And also, the best motivation for the individual to do his best for his/her career.

I have dreamt of having a good job ever since I remember. This constant preoccupation for my professional future made me extremely rigorous and conscientious regarding my studies and, as I always felt attracted to the domain of human sciences, I pointed my attention towards this. Therefore, when I was finally named the manager of a small, but prolific company of medicines, I felt that my long-term efforts have been rewarded. Also, as my current interest regards a job in Health Administration in a hospital, I believe that having a solid experience in this domain would be extremely helpful for me and would make my further adaptation to this new job very natural.

As a manager, I learnt significant new things, both as a professional and as a person. I feel grateful that, fortunately, I was endowed with a few attributes that really helped me adapt and comply easily with this type of job, but most of these attributes were improved during my work, while new ones were also gained.

Therefore, I would describe myself as being extremely calm and having a lot of patience when it comes to talking and listening to people. During my professional experience, I have learnt that listening to other's opinion and taking them into account is what helps the group remain cohesive and the members of the team devoted to a certain project.

Also, I would say that, during years, I have managed to develop a really important ability. As a manager to the above mentioned company, I succeeded in learning how to temperate my team. To mediate conflicts can be sometimes difficult, especially if one's colleagues have strong and different tempers and it is the duty of the manager to maintain a good balance in the working environment. That is why I generally prefer a working strategy based on mutual listening and consulting. I feel that a natural attitude and the lack of a severe authority can help a manager draw himself near his employees and, at the same time, it can be very efficient. It is widely accepted the fact that people work better when they are not under pressure and emotional stress.

Speaking about the team, it is also the responsibility of a manager to have a good acknowledgement in terms of people he/she works with. A good professional, along with charisma, must also have a strong theoretical base and must know how to motivate his employees in order of making the company succeed. It is important to know what are the needs that people have and therefore, to find efficient methods to exploit these pieces of information. Once a need is being satisfied, it is no longer a motivator and one must constantly find new ways of motivating employees to work at their best. This is what makes the different among a casual manager and a leader.

In my career, I feel lucky to be able to interact so easily to a wide range of different people. This mateyness helped me a lot in representing the company and my team on the medicines' market, in gaining potential clients and keeping the competition close.