Posted by Dave Lorenzo - Business Coach

The U.S. Department of Labor outlines three main points of employment as an executive:

• Keen competition is expected because the prestige and high pay attract a large number of qualified applicants.
• Top executives are among the highest paid workers; however, long hours, considerable travel, and intense pressure to succeed are common.
• The formal education and experience of top executives vary as widely as the nature of their responsibilities.

Competition. In any field, those who strive to succeed face competition, for the most part in direct proportion to the level of success they want to achieve. This is a fact of life, and you shouldn’t let it stop you from pursuing an executive career, if that is your goal. Learn from the competition, and form alliances with them if you can.

Benefits vs. Demands. Every lifestyle represents a spectrum of joy and pain. You will have to put more time and energy into a career as an executive, but if you love your work, that won’t diminish your happiness and satisfaction. A role of strong leadership offers many more advantages than just monetary. If you are cut out to be a leader, evolving into such a role will benefit and reward you in multiple areas of your life.

Education. In some countries, formal education and certificates are essential, and you needn’t even apply for a position without the proper training. This is not always true in the U.S. According to data provided in this Forbes feature on executive pay, 8 of the top 25 highest paid executives (32% of them) do not have graduate degrees, and 3 (12%) do not even have undergraduate degrees.

Barry Diller (#2 on the list) dropped out of UCLA after one semester, started his career in the mailroom of a talent agency, and went on to become CEO of Paramount Pictures, then Fox, Inc., and, today, CEO of IAC/InterActiveCorp.

Though Larry Ellison (#14) ended his formal education after two and a half years of study at the University of Illinois and the University of Chicago, he has been CEO of Oracle for almost 30 years now.

Lack of a degree has obviously not affected their levels of achievement or income, and such factors needn’t affect yours. Most employers in the U.S. only want to know that you can get the job done.

If you aspire to a professional leadership position, don’t let anything stop you from pursuing that goal. Leaders get to their positions of success by refusing to let anyone stop their persistent progress forward.

Filed under: Executive Suite
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