The word professional is ambiguous.
Even though we use it a lot, we don’t really know what it means.
How do you call someone a professional? Or an expert?
At what stage do you say this person is now a pro?
A cricketer has to go through multiple levels before they get chosen to play for the country. Unless they’re a once-in-a-lifetime talent who gets fast-tracked to the national side, they have to go through the grind.
They first need to get chosen for the school side.
If they are deemed good enough, they might just get chosen to play for their state.
If they’re really good, a few of them get chosen to play for the under 19 sides for their respective countries.
If they are deemed to be good enough, they make it to the national side.
Most players don’t move beyond a certain stage.
You will see a player who has played innumerable matches for their state but for whatever reason, is never chosen to play for the country.
A few will be IPL stars who will dazzle for 2 months in a year and go AWOL after that.
Only a select few will go on to represent the country for a respectable period to time.
The same applies to any sport.
So do you consider a sportsperson a pro only when they get to the highest level in their sport?
At one point, Andre Agassi went from being Number 1 to falling out of the top 100.
Did he stop being a pro when he was at his lowest?
Is a player who plays for the country more pro than someone who plays for a club, even though both play with the same passion and intensity?
The word professional is ambiguous.
Even though we use it a lot, we don’t really know what it means.
A person with a title who abuses their power is not a pro.
A person with experience is not a pro.
A person who has won a trophy or a prize is not a pro.
A person with lots of followers on social media is not a pro.
A person with lots of money is not a pro.
So then, who exactly is a pro? Or, who do you think of as a pro?
When seen through that lens, you will realize that what you can’t really pigeon-hole what professional means.
All of us are not pros in everything. But being a pro has a few characteristics:
a) Resilience
b) Delivering a certain quality
c) Keeping promises
d) Constantly improving
e) Wowing people on a consistent basis
f) Showing up
g) Being on time
h) Treating people well
A decade ago, social media was in its infancy.
Today, you have people calling themselves experts in SEO and social media. Most of them have technical knowledge of how SEO or social media works and christen themselves as pros.
But many of them are not pros.
They might know a few tricks of the trade but that doesn’t make them pros. You can glean the knowledge they have from any website or resource on the web if you look hard enough.
So, who really is a professional? Or what do you need to do to be considered a professional?
A broad definition would read like this — someone who has a certain degree of competence, is trustworthy, and reasonably pleasant to work with. That’s not ‘the’ definition of a pro but the kind of person we tend to define like a pro.
Being a professional isn’t a state to attain. Sadly, many people treat it like that and stop learning and improving, drowning in their own hubris.
The upside is that turning pro is actually a skill. Most people don’t see it like that but if you can improve your interpersonal skills, your contribution, your knowledge, your impact, your contribution — you’re on the way to becoming someone people will consider a pro.
Turning pro is a journey, not a destination.
