It's The Second Year That Counts

There's a common saying you never get a second chance to make a first impression. The saying has merit. Nobody wants to see a potential worker dressed in a Hawaiian shirt being interviewed for an executive position. Nobody? *Clears weird thought in my head*

Thinking one step ahead, the second year, the second go around, the sophomore year determines how good someone or something is. My freshmen year in high school was excluded from my college applications—colleges looked at sophomore to senior year grades. My first year at my present company gave me the wrong impression how friendly my company was—the company began going downhill in terms of workplace morale. Some people I met I thought they were cool people at first—the more I knew them, the more I realized they were jerks. And my laptop I purchased in 2005 worked without problems even though other people reported problems on my model in their first year of use—so far so good in the second year ^_^

When everything is going smoothly in the first year taking classes at high school, the first year working in a company, the first year in a serious relationship, the first year driving a new car, whatever first year, the second year determines how good it is. In the first year, some people tend to have the mindset, the thinking, and the attitude that everything was going perfectly, flawless, and joyful. The first impression was positive. Everything was mistake free or problem free; unfortunately, mistakes and problems are going to happen sooner or later. The second year determines if any mistakes and problems could be corrected to continue the classes, the career, the relationship, keeping the laptop.

Every year, Major League Baseball awards the top rookie in the American League and National League the Rookie Of The Year awards. Mark McGuire, Derik Jeter, Cal Ripken, Jr., and Mike Piazza won Rookie Of The Year awards and have hall of fame careers. On the other hand, Walt Weiss, Jerome Walton, Junior Felix, and, damn, a lot of no namers won Rookie Of The Year awards and have crappy careers in their second years many never played at the major league level thereafter. These players likely brought with them the attitude of everything is going great and no need to worry about messing up to training camp in their sophomore year. These overconfident players' attitudes were wrong.

If you have a great first year at something, then keep the momentum going in the second year and beyond because it's the second year that counts. Continuing innovating to be better and innovate infinitely.