Lessons learned by those prepared to greet chance head on

摘要

With such an inspirational message, is it any wonder that Oh, the Places You'll Go!, Dr Seuss' final publication, became one of the best-selling children's books of all time? Although I am not one to argue with genius, if I were to be totally honest, I would have to admit that my views on the sentiment expressed are self-contradictory. It's a message that I believe worth promoting even while I consider its content to be a flight of fantasy. Readers of Medical Education work in a field full of individuals who have considerable ambitions and more than enough skill to direct themselves down a fulfilling career path of their own choice. Yet what happens when you ask people in health professional education (HPE) or HPE research to describe how they came to their current position? If your experience is anything like mine, you will commonly hear some version of 'dumb luck', 'pure chance' or 'I needed a job'. Sometimes the catalyst is a fortunate relationship with an influential role model; at other times it's an unexpected challenge or experience that changes the way we see the world or our own experience in it. Hardly ever do respondents suggest they truly steered themselves in the direction they chose.