How fast can you run?.. back to school

Some years back, a friend of mine challenged me, "how fast can you run?" What he meant was not how fast I can run on my two legs but how fast I can grow in my career. His principle was that the faster you run, the faster you can climb in an organization (flipside, you can fall harder as you climb higher and you happen to miss a step). Now looking back at what I have done so far, I see that I might have been "running" consistently but have reached nowhere (I get a feeling that I was running on a treadmill all this while). So, I went back to my friend and told him that his "how fast can you run?" strategy is zilch. He smiled at me and said that he now had tweaked his theory. His latest line is, "how fast can you switch tracks while running fast?" For him the new mantra is "change". If you cannot change, or if you cannot adapt (without missing a step) to the competition while you are running, rest assured you are a dodo (yea the extinct bird). Yea, he sounds a bit like that English bloke Sir Charles Darwin. I listen to my friend's advice because he's been quite successful himself. I guess by changing his own fundamental mantra, he's stayed ahead of the competition. Lesson learnt. The next time I get some words of wisdom from him, I will make sure its tweaked according to the prevailing conditions. Now I feel more assured and ready to switch tracks.

So, as a part of this exercise (of running and switching tracks), I recently enrolled myself into a part-time course in Financial Management. Don't ask my why. I wouldn't know the answer anyways (its hard to think and do stuff while you are running). I had a vague feeling that its a start (a worthwhile restart, to be precise) and I hope I can achieve something by the time I finish the course (at least get to understand such bizarre terms as "credit" and "debit" or hopefully know how to balance my checkbook). If I finish the course, that is. People joining part-time courses are notorious for dropping out after the initial drive is gone. They feel that this is one new dimension they cannot handle in their already busy schedule. I hope I don't succumb to this syndrome. Wish me luck.