Marshall University - Chief Justice Yearbook (Huntington, WV)

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Looking Toward the Future Nitzschke Lends His Advice At first, the assignment seemed simple. Write a letter to the students and give advice on how to have a successful career, the Chief Justice editor said. Trusty pen and yellow tablet in hand, I sat down to whip it out, and wound up staring at a blank page for 10 minutes. How do you define success? What is a successful career? Is it being president of a Fortune 500 company? Is it getting rich and retiring by the time you're 30? Is it winning a political office? Is it writing best-selling novels? Being president of a university? Discovering life-saving vaccines? Or could it be teaching handicapped children to tie their shoes, or to write their names? Perhaps it is nursing sick people back to health. Maybe it's simply finding a field you like and putting forth your best effort every day. In other words, a successful career can be defined in a thousand different ways by a thousand different people. It depends on who you are, what you want to accomplish with your life and how you go about doing it. You can be a chairman of the board and have your picture on the cover of a national news magazine but if you're not happy, you are not successful. On the other hand, you can be a modestly-paid social worker and be extremely successful if you help other people and derive joy and satisfaction from your work. So much for a definition of a successful career. Next, how do you achieve a successful career? There are some obvious answers — Inherit a successful company; win the West Virginia Lottery. Better yet, the Ohio Lottery. Failing that, marry the company president's daughter — or son, as the case may be. You could, as many have done, set a course for your success, determine where you want to go, what you want to be — set your sights and never vary from your objectives. Or, as Chuck Yeager suggests, you can take life one day at a time, await the opportunities that come your way, put your talents — and luck — to work, and see what happens. For some, closely following a plan works out best. For others, the Yeager approach produces wonderful results — as it did in the case of General Yeager. For most of us, a combination of those two approaches may be best. A detailed, closely-followed plan may be a great idea, but the world changes. So you have to be flexible enough to alter your course from time to time, take advantage of changing circumstances while staying as close to your ultimate objective as possible. In other words, make plans but don't chisel them into concrete. Be ready to roll with the punches, go with the flow, or whatever the cliche of the day may be. Don't be so tied to your plan that changing conditions can destroy the plan — and you. The key is preparation. Prepare yourself for life, not just a specific career. Prepare yourself in your Marshall classes — all of them, not just your major field. Decide in general terms where you want to be 10, 20, 40 years from now. Read all you can find that pertains to the career you've chosen. Talk with people in the field. Work. I earn. Prepare. And be ready for change. It's almost inevitable. If, in 15 years it becomes necessary for you to come back to the classroom and reorient your career course, look at it as a new challenge — not the end of the world. Increasingly in the years ahead, many of us are going to be forced to change our goals as our society and our world change. President Dale F. Nitzschke 6 Opening

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Working intently on deadline for The Parthenon are Dave Jenkins, Mike Fnel and Chris Miller. Sometimes a telephone break can relieve some work stress, as Nick Schweitzer found out. For Hassan Gamael, graduate assistant in math, practice in teaching is excellent preparation for a career. Opening 5

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