As an executive search professional, and coach to company leaders, I work with many fine leaders from various countries within a variety of businesses in Korea. I often witness firsthand what works and what doesn’t in Korea. Life for me is not boring ― it’s a roller coaster.

How can we smooth out the ride of our careers in Korea? Why do books not always deliver? Well, because life is not so cut and dried that it can be captured easily between two hard covers. In looking for a career, don’t assume someone else’s recipe for success is going to deliver the results you expect. Successful people uncover and deploy patterns that work time and again in a variety of situations. Find the pattern that will find you your dream job, and employ it with passion.

The secret to unlocking results is to locate the pattern. Why? Because if we can figure out what worked and didn’t work before, we can repeat successes and avoid failures. A single blueprint for success doesn’t exist. The dimensions of each problem are as unique as our fingerprints. We can’t hope to find a master plan somewhere; the best we can hope for is to find the evidence left behind by the great successes of the past.

Look for the pattern and there you will find the solution. Take, for example, Dr. Stephen Covey’s inspirational book, “7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” Dr. Covey’s book has outlined a pattern for repeating “effectiveness.” Understanding the pattern that he describes doesn’t mean we are following his recipe ― we have to employ that pattern in our own way; in a way that works for us. His seven habits are: Be proactive, begin with the end in mind, put first things first, think win-win, seek first to understand and then to be understood, synergize, and then sharpen the saw. No two people will do these things in exactly the same way, but all who do them with passion can expect to gain effectiveness.

We can also find further evidence of great successes of the past by looking at ourselves. The most often overlooked, yet perhaps the most valuable pattern is that of “self-assessment.” This pattern consists of identification of your most successful achievements, determining the five or six success factors most often used in these achievements, using these success factors to describe what the achievement was, how you did it and what the results were.

So what’s a pattern for career success? Should one focus on the jobs that pay the most, or should one focus on the positions that brings the most happiness? Do you have to make a choice between the two? Maybe in the long term, doing what you love will make you more successful and therefore bring more financial rewards, too.

Continual career success comes from recognizing and implementing proven success patterns. In particular, patterns of other successful people, effectiveness, self-assessment, forecasts, and the patterns of social trends.

These patterns coupled with individual talent and skills are the formula for career happiness and success.

By Steve McKinney

Steven B. McKinney is the founder and president of McKinney Consulting Inc., an executive search and leadership consulting firm. He is also the head of Seoul Global Center for the Seoul Metropolitan Government and an honorary citizen of Seoul. The opinions reflected in the article are his own. ― Ed.