Voices of the Future - Cecilia Fernandez - BBA in Global Hospitality Management at Les Roches Crans-Montana, Switzerland.

About Cecilia, “Having grown up in a diverse and multicultural environment, I have committed to my studies at Les Roches Global Hospitality Education in Switzerland to excel in the hospitality industry. Having worked from a young age, I have always been inspired to thrive and advance in my career in order to reach my goals and aspirations in life."

EP proudly provides a platform for the thoughts and voices of the future leaders of the Hospitality industry.

Becoming a successful professional: Leveraging all skills or only excelling at some?

Society has shown us that specialising in one skill will be better for our future and that as long as you are very good at doing something, you will have a stable job and will always be needed by your employer.

After high school, we are told that we must choose a career to specialise in and take a path that will influence the direction of our lives. This can be a lot of pressure as most people do not know what they want to do at such a young age.

Committing to a single skill is risky, unless you are at the top 10% of specialisations. That being the case, it is convenient to diversify your areas of interest and expertise.

Our world is constantly changing and, any day, things could change and your skill could no longer be needed. Nowadays, people are praised for applying their knowledge to all sorts of different situations.

Acclaimed author Robert Greene once said that “The future belongs to those who learn more skills and combine them in creative ways”. If you have many different skills, you can get so much further with what you want to do.

For instance, someone who may want to have a start-up will need to hire different people to help with skills that they may not necessarily have. However, if you have multiple skills, such as leading, marketing, basic Excel knowledge and so on, you can save a lot of time and money. You do not have to be an expert at any of these skills but having basic knowledge of a variety of skills and tasks is crucial to achieving success.

If you are able to showcase many skills in your workplace you will open many more doors for yourself. Even the most successful entrepreneurs today demonstrate that having many skills has helped them get to where they are today.

In fact, one skill all successful people possess, according to Forbes magazine, is the ability to learn from their mistakes. This is why you must always try new things, take risks, and not stick to your comfort zone. People who achieve their dreams are always experimenting and exploring new things.

The wealthiest man in the world, Jeff Bezos, once said, “If you decide that you’re going to do only the things you know are going to work, you’re going to leave a lot of opportunity on the table”. Bezos is referring to the fact that you cannot put everything on one skill or choice, you cannot be excellent at something, but rather you must try many different things otherwise you will be missing out on many opportunities in life and in your career.

In a nutshell, leveraging all skills, whether they are analytical, communication, critical thinking, teamwork, empathy (to name a few), is going to ensure more chances of becoming a successful professional than only excelling at some. The more you have to offer, the more people will look up to you.

Cecilia Fernandez is a BBA Global Hospitality Management student at Les Roches.