Michele Carbone: Why some people go up in their career and some do not?

Michele Carbone, William & Ellen Melohn Chair in Cancer Biology at University of Hawaii Cancer Center, made the following post on LinkedIn:

“Why some people go up in their career and some do not?

We would like to think that in science and medicine merit is the driving force, but merit alone is not enough.

Recognition comes from your peers, so if they do not like you, or maybe they do not feel you can do something for them in return, no matter how good you are, what you have done what you discovered, you will not go up.

Depending on the political climate, it may or may not help you to be a man or a woman, to be white or non-white. Luck plays a role too, if you are there at the right moment it will make a huge difference, if a good friend of yours ends up in a position of power will help, and so on and on.

At times merit works against you as some will be envious and afraid of your accomplishments: those people will try to keep you down and instead will push up mediocre people like them.

It is impossible to control all these variables, those who try live miserably. This is the world and we cannot change human nature.”

Source: Michele Carbone / LinkedIn