I somehow lost count how many jobs i’d been to. First, I worked as lab technologist then as, computer programmer, car sales, pharma sales, community relations supervisor, academic director etc. For most part of my job hopping years, i didnt stay for more than a year for a variety of reasons I can’t recall anymore. I was like a bunny jumping from one job to another not knowing when to stop and what i wanted to – i just kept on jumping!

Ten jobs (it might be even more) later in fifteen years and now a businessman, job hopping taught me more valuable lessons than being in one or few jobs and here’s why:

1. Learned more valuable business experiences – What i am now as a businessman is a sum of all past learnings from diverse jobs that I had been to. Because of that, I learned a little of sales, marketing, PR, technology, and even HR management. Experiences that i couldn’t have possibly learned when focused to a single career.

2. New skills – Skill is the artistic expression of earned knowledge. It is what sets the extraordinary from a sea of mediocre. With all career experiences i’d been to (good or bad), i developed skill sets that prove essential to things i do now as a businessman. Skills that are unique only to me that none can take away.

3. Self-confidence – Being in and out of job countless times is wrought with despicable failures. Sometimes they can be downright ugly however, it gave me a fresh perspective on solving out problems and another chance to make it better. Repeating the failure-success cycles, it gave me the confidence to tackle problems head on squarely and objectively while courage to take another challenge builds up.

4. Flexibility – With vast knowledge and skill sets, I made myself flexible to become anything life puts me into. My past previous jobs prepared me to do almost anything or resolve anything in times of crisis. A case in point is when I worked as a lab technologist again when my second business venture with my wife failed. Flexibility can only come when new skills are developed.

5. Makes you a happy and better person – A friend once asked me that job focus can get me far more than slacking around to look for the ideal job. I said true, no doubt about it then responded back by another question. Does job focus brings you to the destination you wanted to be? Probably but in more ways that one, people with job focus always end up dissatisfied and forced to do it anyways since they have gone a long way with their careers. they’re stuck and they’re unhappy.

Jumping from one job to another gives you a taste of what you really wanted to do over what you think you feel like doing. Thinking of doing is different from feeling like doing. Unfortunately, we are all groomed by our old folks (and schools) on thinking of getting a job and sticking with it for a lifetime. This thinking does not give people a chance to identify the type of work that will define our identities as unique being and how, in our own very special way, we can be of value to our community. The only job security one can get is by continuously reinventing ones self by hopping from one job to another.

Go! Jump to as many jobs as possible. Find God’s purpose for you.