Are You Team Harry?

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was a great movie. For a second, I observed the ties between Harry's peers. A tween took on evil by rebelling and listening to others. It reminds me of what all of us do and what I did when I was younger.

When I was younger, I was told I could be a firefighter, teacher, and even a lawyer. Those typical labels just didn't fit me. My uncles suggested engineering as a career, while my dad suggested being a doctor and my mother suggested being a chef (how did that happen?). "No way," I said.

I was 16 and sitting inside a waiting room with another guy, probably in his 20's. I looked at him and began a conversation with him. He asked me my background and I asked him what he was studying. He told me "marketing". Sounded fancy but never really came to my mind. This guy, told me how cool it was. "You think of ways to hook people and find exploit people's wants," he said. "Sounds bad, but deep, deep inside people do like it." Sounded very interesting. "It's common sense," he kept telling me, " but common sense can be an art."

Later that day, I researched what marketing really was. Every company needs sales, but sales are done with marketing. Some confuse marketing with advertising but the fact is advertising is just a slice of the big pie. *Marketing consists of advertising, public relations, management, market research, and event planning. It's a very structured career with very strong ties to business, because marketing depends on business to thrive.

I really thank that man for opening the world of marketing to me that day. Ever since then, I have my eyes set on  marketing as a career. All of my family is surprised I want to enter the marketing field. My uncles still question my vision but I persist it's what I want. They once called me "rebellious". I told them very clearly "You mean to tell me I'm 'rebellious' because I want to pick something different no one in the family ever thought of doing?" They weren't mad or cynical, they were just being skeptic. Sometimes, you just have to do something different. Just like Harry, you might trip or fall along the way because you are the first one doing it but it's worth it. I think I'm setting a new standard in my family: leadership. It sounds silly, but my family consists of teachers, engineers, secretaries, nurses and even doctors but none of them are in business! It pisses me off! I have no one to look up to but I think this will teach me a lesson on how to go about things myself just like Harry did.

*http://marketing.about.com/od/careersinmarketing/qt/mrktcareertip.htm
http://marketing.about.com/od/exploremarketingcareers/Explore_Marketing_Careers.htm