There are three critical traits that individuals should embodyin order to be successful.

1. The drive to be the best, which involvesmaintaining a strong reputation, while staying challenged andengaged. While striving to be the best, expect quite a fewchallenges to pop up. Staying engaged in your work can sometimes betough. Some of my most successful peers and colleagues practice thefollowing to overcome hurdles on the path to success:
   • Keep informed about how the work you do on a daily basisultimately affects the success of the company,
   •Take ownership of your work
   •Have open communication with your colleagues and superiors. Inmany cases, employees do their jobs, but have no idea how the workthey do has an impact on the company's bottom line and success. Bytraining employees to understand how their contributions affect thebusiness, they are more likely to take ownership of theirwork.
2. It's important for an individual to have a strongpersonal brand reputation. Working for a company that isknown for offering quality products and services is important, andcompanies that offer both reflect a strong culture and strongemployees. A strong reputation can help individuals maintain jobsecurity in even some of the most challenging economic conditions.Learn 5 ways to brand yourself and your agency.
3. It's important for businesses or employees, regardless of ageor generation, to challenge themselves, and tohone and expand skill sets. If you want to keep your business orjob interesting, enjoyable, and productive, you need to get out ofyour comfort zone.

Coming from an engineering background with no insuranceexperience has been a challenge as I continue developing as aninsurance professional. Luckily, I was able to learninsurance basics and leadership skills from Zurich's Associate Program. It's a 10-month program that givesselect individuals the opportunity to learn about all aspects ofthe insurance industry, including underwriting, claims and riskengineering, just to name a few. Additionally, through the program,I developed many important relationships that I continue to developin my current position.

If GenYers work hard and strive to be the best, maintain strongpersonal brand reputations, and continuously challenge themselves,our generation will lead a more creative and effective workenvironment and be ready to help Generation Z achieve its bestpotential.