As most of you know I am heavily involved in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. For the past 11 plus years I have been training and competing in the art. In one of my most recent posts I talked about how one week at a tournament opened my eyes to how I am personally and professionally.

This past weekend was the start of my next chapter in this art and it made me think more about previous conversations I had on SPaMCast about careers and how individuals should approach their careers. This weekend I got my Black Belt, which is my second one. I have a 3rd degree Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do. The difference between the 2 is the TKD first degree took me under two years to get, which is about average for that art. The time and dedication for Jiu Jitsu made this weekend’s promotion so sweet.

Just like progressing in your career when you get the goal you have been aspiring to is such a great feeling. The time to learn something new, the learning from decisions along the way and some sacrifices you made to get to were you want to be makes it so rewarding.

When it happened a flood of emotions took over. I felt on top of the word. After the belt was put around my waist I addressed the other students and said they are lucky to be doing what they are doing. They are on a journey that has great rewards along the way, and that those rewards are what they make of them. Nobody else.

Much like a career, nobody but you have the say in what can or cannot be achieved. Keep pushing and striving to be the best at what you do. Do not compare yourself to others as that will get you no where.

Great things can happen when you work hard and remain consistent.

Published by Jeremy Berriault

Quality Assurance (QA) is a demanding discipline that can show value throughout an entire organization. Explicitly and implicitly can drive out, not only improvements in any Software Delivery Life Cycle (SDLC), it can also provide a mechanism to improve processes across the enterprise and create an environment of innovation and collaboration. As Director of Quality Assurance I oversee QA efforts for large programs, manage QA processes, work with all stakeholders reliant on QA initiatives and collaborate with internal and external strategic partners to develop efficient plans for upcoming changes. I am very passionate about QA, whether it is speaking at conferences or over a cup of coffee, I enjoy discussions of how this discipline provides great value to an organization. My goals are to improve the visibility and the value the QA discipline can bring to organizations to achieve my vision of making organizations great.

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