Whether you are new in your career or established, you can learn a lot by reflecting upon your older colleagues.

The ones who've been working for 40 years or so, near retirement.

How did they strategize and plan? What did they prepare for?

It's easy to say you can figure out the answers, but learning from someone that's been through similar situations can lead to new growth and opportunities for improvement.

If you contemplate the work ethic of older colleagues that have come across your path -- my bet is it's very high and quite impressive.

I've worked for several companies during my career and learned valuable lessons from each of them.

At one place of employment, my boss, a woman who was about 20 years my senior, always stayed way past business hours, worked extremely hard and even did menial work to help with production the next day. She brought cohesiveness to the team.

My mentor, I find to be quite a character. He is full of valuable advice and never ceases to amaze me.

He makes me think of the probable foreseen and the unforeseen and has taught me to always have a plan in place for each. In so many instances, I am so thankful I heeded his advice!

Doesn't it seem so often that during planning, we always tend to think in terms of everything going the way we want it to go? Things will be perfect. But, sometimes things don't go as planned and sometimes, plans simply fail.

You need to get your mind in tune to thinking of "what if x, y or z fails, do I have a back-up plan?".

Prepare for the unknown. Calculate what could go wrong and have a Plan B in place. It makes work so much easier when you are prepared for the unforeseen failures that could and sometimes do inevitably arise.

Do you have any stories to share regarding what you've learned from others? Drop me a line - helen.roush@ipulpmedia.com