This post was most recently updated on December 19th, 2016

A friend of mine asked me an interesting question about career, “Is there any way we’ll have a great career where all the people are just blindly working like there’s nothing else in this world except work and working hard just to keep themselves as well as others busy?”

I kept quiet as I too was following the same path and had the same question as him. But there was one difference. I had an answer to his question. Having found my interest and passion from there, given many seminars on same topic, and reading about 50 books year after year, I knew there was a way people earned a living from doing the work they love.

He was very impatient and wanted an answer right now. I thought for a moment and came up with three signs that are absolutely necessary for a great career.

If we get serious on the question that he asked me, I think we can have a great if we see these three signs in us during the course of our career.

You have made lot of progress.

Look back on your life few years back from now. Could you notice the difference between the person you were then and you are now? If you seem to be a bit wiser than before, you did make a progress. And it’s not just about being wisest. Progress comes in many ways. You might be a better writer by writing more words per day than you used to write a year before, you might be taking more quality photographs than you were taking before, you might be delivering more and better speeches than you delivered before or you might be getting more results in whatever work you used to do before.

The lesson is this.

If you agree that the person you were few years ago will take advice from the person you are now, you have made a clear progress in life.

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You love to learn.

You haven’t stopped learning even after leaving college or any course you pursued last. You are constantly grabbing all opportunities to learn and you don’t even get tired of it, you still sit in the seminar hall like a student even though you think you know more than 80 % of people out there in your field, you are curious about most things in life and want to continuously improve yourself.

That is my friend, is a sure sign that you’ll have a great career. But just learning and making progress is not enough. You might get satisfied with what you have achieved so far so you may stop doing what you used to do and it may limit your success hence it’s very important that you share the third quality of all people who had great careers.

You spend each and every day taking action on it.

You might not see results for years, you might hear multiple no’s, and you might get criticized. But no matter what, you take a small tiny step each and every day towards your dream. People who have great careers know that rejection is must but failure is not an option and you must fuel your dream by taking tiny steps each and every day.

But I want the results now, said my friend.

“That is not possible my friend”, I said and I continued to work on my weekend plans.