(This post originally appeared on the CPA Center of Excellence)

It has taken close to a decade for me to even begin to understand what comes with experience.  In navigating through our professional and personal lives, we struggle with understanding the journey and direct our focus solely on the destination.  This post is not another attempt to say that life is all about the journey. If you are still conducting this debate under the pretense of self-monologue, you have already missed the ship out of town.

I am 31. To the baby boomers, I am the disdained “millennial.” To my colleagues, I’m likely just another guy.  For those that I meet that are younger, I probably have achieved a respectable level of success that is the target of their pursuits.  These are the folks that need the most help, and not from the perception of inability.  In fact, I find it is quite the contrary. Their talent and ideas of the world can teach most who would consider themselves their elder.

To you gen Z’s (or wherever the hell we are in the alphabet at this point to name a chunk of people of similar age), this post is for you to combat predisposed perception and anticipated weakness from the old people that are interviewing you. This post will not provide all the answers like a google search does, but more so the quick look of a snapchat story that may get you in the door that was previously closed.

• Find passion and pursue it – Side hustles, second jobs, and extra effort will pay until the end of time. Achievement always impresses no matter how old someone gets.  So, find even the smallest passion and pursue it fully before career, family, and life in general happen.  If a significant other does not support it, then what are they doing with you? The passion can be big or small, but starting a blog, entering your photography in a local gallery, or even taking your passion and creating a business will be acknowledged, at minimum, to whomever you want to impress.  No matter the level of perceived “success,” accomplishment will grab attention.
• Speak with humble confidence – There is no replacement for confidence; however, there is no tolerance for arrogance.  The normal dynamic you’ll face is that you are less experienced than the person interviewing you. Speaking in a way that communicates, “I know more than you,” is a dangerous route to take.  Possibly the most important result of experience is context that results from actually having to navigate through problem solving.  As a college senior or young professional, these opportunities have just not happened for you as many times as they will in the future (hence…see bullet #1).  Therefore, knowing your potential is a requirement, but speaking like you know the best and only alternative will turn people away that you are stubborn, arrogant, and closed minded.
• Task HYPER-Focused – The cliche stating, “the journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step,” is emblematic of two lessons.  1) The hardest thing to do is start and 2) the end of the journey is only reached when completing each step of the way.  I am emphasizing the latter here.  Even for those that think in the abstract, your masterpiece won’t be completed without chipping away at the product.  The ability to be task-focused is the most important advice I offer to those trying to learn how to accomplish their goals.  The actual process of achieving begins with small achievements that are planned harmoniously and build up to grandeur achievement. That sentence uses a lot of variations of the same word, but the gist is write out lists of tasks that need to get completed and make sure that after the completion of the list it takes you closer to your ultimate goal.  

I have addressed this post to help those that are younger, ambitious, and seeking great fulfillment as they move forward.  However, I hope that those who possess the namesake of this post will challenge themselves to also help someone gain a new experience.  There is always someone that gave successful people an unearned opportunity. That is the only way to start something. Allow the power of context provided to you from experience benefit the next generation to carry them to new heights.