These are required for any worthwhile career
News flash! - These are all traits, attributes, and mantras of any worthwhile career path. Unless you want to spend your life mopping floors, cleaning bathrooms, or stuck behind the counter at 7-11 selling beer and cigarettes for the rest of your life, these are traits that you will have to master.
In 25 years of working in IT, engineering, consulting, and management, I have rarely seen any new comers in my career with all of these skills. Yes, I used the word skill. These are all skills that can be attained through hard work, determination, and persistence. Arguably everyone has developed some of these traits because the they have natural inclinations towards some of them. But no one I know has a monopoly on all of them.
Can you imagine a doctor, lawyer, or an airline pilot without these abilities? Having worked with attorneys, heads of industries, developers, general contractors, corporate representatives of all types, my most valuable contacts, associates, partners, and co-workers have all mastered, or aspire to master these skills as much as humanly possible.
So what is the real key in IT (as it is in any industry) love of the craft. You have to love what you do. That is the only real element of success .... in ANY industry. Because love of IT, keeps you fascinated and excited about the learning process. It provides the strength of character needed to counter act frustration, long hours, and fatigue. It feeds the fascination for learning new things and new ways of doing things. It unlocks humility to learn from others who know more.
The happiest of us all - does what they love, and loves what they do.
