Business and Career Success: Know Your Ruling Star! by James Clayton Napier"Know your Ruling Star. One man is better received by one nation than another, or is one welcome by one city than another. He finds more luck in one office or position than in another, and all though his qualifications are equal or even identical. Let each man know his luck as well as his talents. Follow your guiding star and help it without mistaking any other for it. Know how to transplant yourself. There are nations with whom one must cross their borders to make one's value felt.” — Balthasar Gracian, (Spain, 1600's)
Have you ever felt, “Here I am, best job I ever had, good money, an excellent career move — but, what in
world am I doing here where I feel so alone and out-of-place with my surroundings? How did this happen to me?”
I’ve been there, because someone offered me a job and I accepted, knowing ahead-of-time, intuitively I wouldn’t feel at home in town and surroundings.
Or — maybe you love your location but, sadly, are unable to find any openings in your field. I’ve been there also. Looking back on my years in Austin, Texas, I can’t believe number of short-term, soul-emptying jobs I tried very hard and unsuccessfully do to. My job-duration ranged from only two hours (which was long enough when you hate what you are doing!) to several months (each day seeming like an eternity) before my opportunities in broadcasting finally came.
It’s a rare person these days who is able to say, “I love this community, love my home, love work I do, get along great with my business colleagues and supervisors. How do you beat perfection?”
There is a wonderful quote I repeated to myself many, many times during my ups and downs in Texas.
“Hence first principle in changing one’s character is to seek another environment, to let new forces play upon our unused chords, and draw from us a better music.” — Will Durant
That’s what I wanted! I wanted another location — another place — where new forces could play upon my unused chords and draw from me a better music.
“There are nations with whom one must cross their borders to make one's value felt." — Gracian
Yes! Yes! Yes! That’s what I wanted. To cross borders and feel my native talents valued again.
"Know your Ruling Star,” Spanish priest Gracian wrote in The Art of Worldly Wisdom. “One man is better received by one nation than another, or is one welcome by one city than another. He finds more luck in one office or position than in another, and all though his qualifications are equal or even identical.”
We are better received in certain locations or areas than in others, welcomed when we show up, and we most certainly do find more luck in one place than another.
