Keep your foot on the gas.
Hey there!
GM, my name is Jeff Price. All my friends and colleagues call me JP. I have worked for Verizon for 27 years in various depts and positions. I have had nine different jobs within the company and currently have reached the level of Assoc Director. With my goal to even move higher. When growing up as a kid my mind would always race at all the possibilities of what I could do in life. Where it would lead me and all the obstacles and challenges that would pop up and try to derail my goals and could I really be successful and good at my job.
As time went on, I was in college before I knew it. At first college was about taking the basics, building that foundation as most would call it. But as time went on, I needed to decide my career path and what I felt would be good for me. I loved math, numbers, calculations. It seemed the world was endless in what you could do with numbers and data and all the different things you could solve, develop and create. But I also knew it was important to develop other skills around communication, leadership, organization, problem solving.
I knew from growing up and having friends of all races it was vital I understood diversity. How we all fit in this world together and how we all can make a difference. It doesn’t make any difference whether you are man or woman, your race etc. it was important to have that diverse group of people around me to not only help me in school to learn but to grow as an individual so I would be ready for the challenges would throw at me as a young adult. I learned different ways to study for example in my love of numbers I learned how to break math down in small pieces in my head and then piece it all together to get the answer. Whether it was addition, multiplication, percentages it didn’t matter. My brain became a human calculator. I was then able to take that an expand on other abilities and ways to learn in reading. And when understanding more what I was reading that in turn helped me in my writing. Before I knew it I was able to see how so many things we do with our skills are connected and can make us stronger in those we feel we may be weak in.
Set goals, make some easy to obtain to get that feel of success but set stretch goals for other things so you learn to push yourself. Life will be a challenge and if you learn to challenge those skills and yourself as you grow up then when you are an older adult and things happen you tend to handle things easier, don’t get down or feel defeated as quick as others.
And the most important item to always remember don’t give up. The only person that needs to believe in you in the end is you. Don’t listen to the noise around you, set your goals, create that drive and keep your foot on the gas and you can achieve anything in life you want. This is a message my wife and I teach our two young kids every day. If you have that ambition and drive the only thing will stop you, is you. My wife is a perfect example of that. She is a beautiful African American woman who has worked in Corporate America, got her Bachelors, Masters and currently working on her PhD in Communications.
