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Plumber to CEO: Your Destiny isn’t Pre-Planned

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Chances are you’re not doing the career path you choose in elementary school. Additionally, you may have changed professions at least once already in your life. Financial Times suggests people plan for five careers in a lifetime. So, the truth is, your future isn’t pre-ordained. 

Don’t Settle on Your First Choice

At 17, Darren Cabral started working as an apprentice plumber in Toronto’s housing projects. Hating the aspect of sitting behind a desk all day, he chose 80-hour weeks doing backbreaking labor in all weather conditions. By 20, Darren was already burned out. 

His parents, immigrants that spent many years laboring, wouldn’t allow him to quit without trying to better his life. Darren went back to school and started working on his own business at the same time. Not years, but months after leaving the plumbing profession, he launched his first successful business—Toronto Skycam. 

A year later, Darren sold his aerial imaging company to a larger tech firm. 

Don’t Look Back 

Darren Cabral didn’t lightly jump from one industry to another. He had over 3,000 hours invested in plumbing. He knew it would be a steady income and a pandemic-proof career. After all, people are always going to need plumbers. Had Darren stayed in that mindset, he would have never reached his true potential. 

Don’t Stop Growing 

Darren didn’t stop working on his future prospects when he started college. He kept pursuing successful business opportunities. Likewise, after selling Toronto Skycam, he didn’t stop building from his ideas. 

The seasoned entrepreneur decided to move onto the digital marketing industry. He wasn’t qualified. But that wasn’t a barrier. He learned the ins and outs of social media advertising on Facebook and Instagram. 

In 2016, the entrepreneur started Suits Social, a social media marketing agency that focuses on Facebook and Instagram advertising. Generating  millions of dollars a month for their clients in a half dozen industries, helping them sell online, build their brand, and increase revenue in a very measurable way.

Don’t Give Up 

Like working as a plumbing apprentice, he threw himself into learning and working, spending 60 to 70 hours a week in online marketing. The lack of experience and references hurt. Darren pursued every avenue of digital advertising, learning everything he could. Finally, after six months, he signed his first client. 

At the end of the year, he made $18,000. Some people would give up at that point. Instead of throwing in the towel, Darren worked harder. After three years of not stopping, he’s a successful digital marketer. He’s the CEO of Suits Social and has days where he earns more in 24 hours than he did during his first year in the industry.

Don’t Let Education Stop You

If Darren Cabral let educational barriers get in the way of his goals, he wouldn’t be the CEO of a successful digital marketing agency. He taught himself everything he needed to know about digital marketing. Combined with his business education, Darren’s business, Suits Social, saw 2700% growth over three years. 

His philosophy? Focus on results! Everything Suits Socal does revolves around running Facebook and Instagram ads as profitably as possible while providing measurable results across the board. His customers always know how their ads are performing and see results in realytime 24/7/365 no surprises. Don’t lock yourself into one mindset. Be like Darren, and never stop striving for more. There’s no reason you can’t go from sitting in a cubicle to the head seat in the boardroom. 

The idea of Bigtime Daily landed this engineer cum journalist from a multi-national company to the digital avenue. Matthew brought life to this idea and rendered all that was necessary to create an interactive and attractive platform for the readers. Apart from managing the platform, he also contributes his expertise in business niche.

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Business

The Ultimate Guide to the Essential Social Skills in Business

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Effective communication and strong relationships are essential for success in the workplace. One factor that can greatly influence these qualities is emotional intelligence, often abbreviated as EQ. EQ refers to the ability to identify, understand, and manage one’s own emotions, as well as the emotions of others. Research has shown that individuals with high levels of EQ are better equipped to handle stress, communicate effectively, and work collaboratively with others (Chamorro-Premuzic & Sanger, 2016).

Research has consistently shown that emotional intelligence (EQ) is an important predictor of job performance and success in the workplace. EQ is comprised of a set of skills that allow individuals to recognize, understand, and regulate their own emotions, as well as the emotions of others. In addition, individuals with high EQ are better able to communicate effectively, build relationships, and navigate complex social situations. As a result, they are often viewed as effective leaders and collaborators, and are more likely to achieve their personal and professional goals.

In fact, a number of studies have demonstrated the significant impact that EQ has on job performance and success. For example, one study of 85 upper-level managers found that those with higher EQ scores were rated as more effective leaders by their subordinates (Law, Wong, & Song, 2004). Another study of 151 employees found that those with higher EQ were more likely to be promoted within their organization over a five-year period (Carmeli, Brueller, & Dutton, 2009). These findings highlight the importance of EQ in the workplace and suggest that developing these skills can lead to significant benefits for both individuals and organizations.

According to a study conducted by TalentSmart, a leading provider of EQ assessments, EQ is responsible for 58% of success in all job types (Bradberry & Greaves, 2009). In contrast, IQ only accounts for about 4% of success in the workplace. This suggests that EQ is a crucial skill set for individuals in any professional field. Fortunately, EQ is a skill that can be developed and honed over time with practice and awareness.

There are several key components of EQ that are particularly important for success in the workplace. These include: 

Self-Regulation: This refers to your capacity to recognize and control your emotions. Sometimes treating them when they arise may be necessary. Understanding how to manage your anger is essential. However, it can also cover how to control the feelings you’ll experience.

Self-Awareness: This implies recognizing and understanding your own feelings. Do noisy places make you nervous? Do other people talking over you make you angry? Knowing these truths about yourself shows that you are working on your self-awareness. Being conscious of yourself is necessary for this phase, which can be more complex than it sounds.

Socialization: This category focuses on your capacity to manage social interactions and direct relationships. It doesn’t entail dominating others but knowing how to work with others to achieve your goals. This could entail presenting your ideas to coworkers, leading a team, or resolving a personal disagreement.

Motivation: Strong motivators include external forces like money, status, or suffering. Internal motivation, however, plays a significant role in Goleman’s concept. By doing so, you demonstrate your ability to control your cause and initiate or continue initiatives of your own volition rather than in response to external demands.

Empathy: It’s equally critical to be sensitive to others’ feelings. This may entail learning to identify different emotional states in individuals — for example, can you tell the difference between someone at ease and someone anxious? — but it also requires comprehension of how other people may react to their current situation. Empathy is one of the essential traits in business and business leadership.

A thought leader in this space, Michael Ventura has built a career advising organizations on the importance of emotional intelligence in the workplace. In his book, Applied Empathy, Ventura highlights the value of empathy in business and provides strategies for developing and applying this skill set. With two decades of experience as a leader, facilitator, and educator, Ventura’s work has made impact in with prestigious institutions such as Princeton University and the United Nations as well as corporate clients such as Google and Nike.

Through his work, Ventura advises leaders to focus on the development of EQ in order to help individuals improve their communication, collaboration, and leadership skills, ultimately leading to greater success in the workplace. Experts like Ventura continue to support the growing body of research on the value of EQ in business, and the evidence that organizations who invest in the EQ of their teams help to create a more empathetic and successful professional environment.

And it’s worth noting that EQ isn’t just important for individual success in the workplace, but also for overall organizational success. A study by the Center for Creative Leadership found that EQ was a better predictor of success than IQ or technical skills in the workplace, and that teams with higher levels of EQ tend to be more effective and productive (Boyatzis, Goleman, & Rhee, 1999). By cultivating a culture of empathy and emotional intelligence, organizations can improve their overall performance and create a more positive work environment for their employees.

In conclusion, emotional intelligence is a crucial component of success in the workplace, and individuals and organizations alike should prioritize the development of these skills. The ones that do not only develop a leading edge in their category, but also become a meaningful place to work for their teams. And in today’s rapidly changing talent landscape, the retention of highly capable, emotionally intelligent leaders is one of the greatest keys to unlocking success.

References:

Boyatzis, R. E., Goleman, D., & Rhee, K. S. (1999). Clustering competence in emotional intelligence: Insights from the emotional competence inventory (ECI). In R. Bar-On & J. D. A. Parker (Eds.), Handbook of emotional intelligence (pp. 343-362). Jossey-Bass.

Bradberry, T., & Greaves, J. (2009). Emotional intelligence 2.0. TalentSmart.

Chamorro-Premuzic, T., & Sanger, M. N. (2016). Does employee happiness matter? Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance, 3(2), 168-191.

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