5 pillars of success!
A bridge without its pillars would not be a bridge.
Here are my personal pillars of success! It got me my dream job as a car designer, but the pillars are universally applicable, So I am sharing it with you in hopes it will do the same for you!
What you need to know at a glance
Mindset - Emancipate your mind, Cross the stream by feeling the rocks one step at a time.
Passion - Find the one thing that you are truly passionate about, continuously work on improving your craft.
Determination - Keep focusing on this one thing and give it a thousand percent! There is no point in dabbling in this or that half-heartedly.
Seek Opportunities - Always be on the look out for opportunities, When it comes, don’t hesitate and act swiftly!
Review, Refine & Repeat - Review your progress, Refine your craft / method, and Repeat these steps even after you succeed!
If you know you want to be a car designer and are looking for answers, the short and simple answer is you will need to prepare a portfolio and try to enroll into an Industrial Design course or Transportation Design course at a reputable university. During your studies, some universities offer internship placements with automobile brands which may fast track your chances to get into the sacred halls of the design studios. If not, you should start to build your LinkedIn profile and get networking as soon as you can.
While the above is certainly true, that is only the tip of the iceberg. Thats the simplified answer. I would like to cover the other side of the story, the steps that will be beneficial to ensure you not only know the path, but also have the necessary mental tools to help you stay on course.
But first, a little background story. Early on in life, I am fortunate enough to know that I wanted to be a professional car designer. Like many others, although I knew where I wanted to go, I had no idea how to get there. Back then, although we had the internet, guides or information regarding car design was few and far in between. I had to find my own way. This post is meant to help those who are interested in becoming a car designer find relevant information and tips that I wished I had when I started. Today, I am grateful that I had succeeded in fulfilling my childhood dream of becoming a car designer and has been ever since. Now I am hoping that the 5 pillars that I am about to share may help you in achieving yours!
Pillar 1: Mindset
Before you begin to plot your path to success, you must first prepare your mind. In essence, if your mind can see where you want to be, it is more likely that you will know more or less the path you should take. In a way it is similar to professional racing drivers who utilizes mental visualization to visualize the track prior to actually racing it.
The first step in this process is to emancipate your mind. What do I mean by emancipation? To emancipate your mind is to free your mind from preconceive ideas or influences, negativity from within or from others, and especially the notion that there is only one way to achieve your goals, because the truth is there are many ways to get to where you want to go, so don’t restrict yourself to only one way.
The second step is to allow yourself to be comfortable without having all the answers, because the reality is that nobody has all the answers all of the time. Instead, approach your path to your goals one small step at a time, feeling your way around much like crossing the stream by feeling the rocks one step at a time. Being adaptive to changes of circumstances while having unwavering clarity of your goals is important as that is part of life, because life is dynamic and not static, changes will happen and you will need to be comfortable and adapt to it.
Pillar 2: Passion
It goes without saying that to be a car designer and to do it well, you will need a ton of passion. Passion is an important element and a great source of motivation that will help you get over any hurdles. Besides that, passion is a great enabler to get your creative juices flowing to create designs that are hopefully fresh and unique. For instance, ever since I knew that car design was a thing, that idea stuck and it became my goal. The passion made it easier to overcome difficulties and it provided the fuel to maintain my motivation.
Maintaining interest or being motivated over a prolong period of time to do something without passion is almost impossible. In addition, being passionate about something will encourage and motivate you to work on your craft. In order to stand a chance at succeeding, you will need to continuously work on your craft and improve it over time. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect!. Therefore I can’t emphasize enough the importance of passion.
Pillar 3: Determination
The determination to maintain focus and to continuously try to increase your chances of success is what separates those who succeed and those who fail because they lack determination and gave up too soon. The path to success is a long and winding one, you must be prepared to make some personal sacrifices and give it 1000% effort! There is simply no reason to do it half heartedly, it is better for you to decide early on to either pursue it or don’t.
As a car design student, you must work very hard in university to level up your skills and prepare a really strong portfolio. In this day and age, giving it 100% does not cut it due to high level of competition. Therefore, during this period you are most likely required to sacrifice or minimize some personal activities like hanging out with friends, and instead spent your time trying to improve your sketching and rendering abilities to finally put together a strong portfolio. A strong portfolio will increase your chances of securing a position with an OEM after graduation but by no means a guaranteed one. This is because about 50% is talent as shown by your portfolio and 50% is personality. Personality in itself is another separate topic on its own that I will cover in future blog posts. (Update: you can read it here)
Pillar 4: Seek Opportunities!
It is never too early to seek out opportunities. Opportunities are abound, but only if you are actively looking for it! Opportunities rarely comes knocking on your door without any effort from your part. As a student, you can increase your chances by attending car design related events, participating in manufacturer sponsored competition and network with people who are already in the industry.
For example, back when I was in university, there was a presentation by a car manufacturer on campus seeking to introduce the automotive industry to students. I attended that event and after the presentation, I approached the presenter to introduce myself and politely asked if he could give me his business card. Little did I know, that man was my future boss and I had just secured his contact while everyone else was chatting away as they exited the presentation hall.
Once an opportunity presents itself, it is up to you to take action swiftly and decisively. Had I debated about going up to the presenter to introduce myself and subsequently get his contact, I might have missed an opportunity. The way I see it, if you give it a try you have a 50% chance of success. If you don’t take action, you stand at 0% chance of success.
Pillar 5: Review, Refine, Repeat (3Rs)
The fifth and final pillar is to review your work and progress constantly to seek new areas or methods in which you can refine your work to improve it. Reviewing your work is an important step of progress and is also part of the design process in real studios. Besides reviewing your own work by yourself, you could also seek the help of your lecturers or even friends to give you some constructive criticism. Constructive criticism is not meant to criticize you personally, but rather positive criticism about your work in which you will then know which areas to focus and improve on.
Once you understand where you should improve, you should consider the necessary steps to help you improve and refine your work. By consistently reviewing and refining your work and your skills, you will in no doubt improve your craft and increase your chances! Even if you succeed in getting a job as a car designer, you should still consistently strive to improve your skills and grow into your role as a professional car designer.
Lastly…
Getting in the front door of that studio is not the end, but rather the beginning of your illustrious career as a professional car designer. Once you begin working in the industry, there will be other things for you to learn such as controlling CAS to best reflect your design intentions, to understanding feasibility and regulatory requirements and how to refine your designs to meet those requirements without losing the essence of your original ideas and so much more. Throughout your career, these 5 pillars of having the right mindset, maintaining your passion to fuel your motivation and determination to succeed, seeking opportunities to contribute your ideas and finally to also keep on reviewing and refining your skills will undoubtably come in handy at different stages of your career. I hope you find this post helpful and I wish you the best of luck!