The Road to Professionalism: A Journey of Determination and Self-Investment.

There’s no elevator to professionalism, you must take the stairs, and when there are no stairs, you make your own stairs. Falling down and climbing back up develops your professional muscles and you can’t buy muscles.

“I received a question, ‘What is a professional?’ one hour before starting a Zoom live session in my online community. I quickly started to compose the best answer.

I first asked ChatGPT, ‘What is a professional?’ and received a response with which I agreed. The answer included the phrase, ‘having professional ethics,’ so I further inquired with more specific questions. I also asked about ‘several cases that could potentially degrade the value of a professional.’ By doing so, I could see which of my personal experiences would be relevant to share in the discussion. I concluded that the main thing to communicate should be about ‘The Professional Baptism’ which includes numerous failures I’ve experienced.”

The online live session began. First, I presented the five essential elements of a professional. The five elements of a professional are: being professional, being healthy, continuing to learn, being fair, and learning from failures.

Then, in chronological order, I delved into the part of my talk about personal experiences. How did I identify the elements necessary to be a professional from numerous ‘baptisms of professionalism’ and failures, and how did I incorporate them into myself?

It started with my blog flameout as apparel store manager, when a best-selling author who clicked on my advertisement and applied for coaching told me, “You’re disqualified as a professional.” I failed at apparel consulting and was asked to improve my professionalism by clients and participants in lectures. Even complaining takes energy, I thought. At the time, I apologized, but now, I realize, my feelings have transformed into gratitude.

Furthermore, as long as I myself am the product, self-investment is necessary to maintain the quality of professionalism. I don’t see it as just consuming money, but rather, using it to refine myself, with an image in mind of that refinement being returned back to society. For that reason, most expenses can be written off, leading to tax savings.

I also value opportunities to learn various things from professionals by becoming a student myself. To prevent becoming self-righteous, it’s important to have a mentor. The feelings I experience in the role of a student can be reflected in my own demeanor. This investment, too, is part of a cycle.

Now I no longer get scolded. This is partly because I have been able to discipline myself and aim for a state in which I have nothing to be tweaked. In other words, it’s about losing one’s ego.

Now, what kind of feedback would I receive from listeners? In reviewing your comments, I saw a number of words connected to “preparedness” scattered throughout.

“Thank you for another speech this morning that was on par with a paid seminar. The amount and quality of your investment in both money and time is overwhelming, and it’s clear that you have a strong intention to be professional in both skills and demeanor. Although it took a long time to get to your current state, I believe you started as a ‘professional’ the moment you had that resolve and determination.”

“I believe that the moment you realize you’re a professional or decide to make that commitment, you become a professional, regardless of your skill level at that point. I notice that you always see even problematic situations in a positive light. You focus on possibilities, your gratitude is overflowing, and I want to cultivate the ability to see things in that same way.”

“I need to take a hard look at myself, who is without the self-awareness or qualities to be a professional, and it hurts. It’s not just painful to my ears, but it also feels like my chest is tight.”

“I think those who become professionals are people who allow themselves to become professionals. Therefore, their thoughts and actions naturally change. They don’t make judgments based on things like not having enough skill yet.”

“It was a talk that made me sit up straight. I even felt my abs tighten up (laughs). By realizing that you’re a professional, your actions follow suit. I’ve been putting off recognizing myself as a professional, thinking I’m not at that level yet… but it clicked for me that it’s important to decide for myself that I’m a professional.”

The path to professionalism begins with a decision. It’s not about waiting for someone to recognize your professional status, but about giving yourself permission to assert it. By doing so, the universe will invite you to its multiverse. And the world that you’ve connected with becomes the world you live in. Welcome to the world of professionalism!