In the IT industry, it is easy to bring up the names of individuals and companies that have triumphed and made the most of themselves in a highly competitive industry. While there are horror stories out there, there are victories when It professionals play their cards right.

Basically, IT pros have to play the game of “two steps forward and one step back” more than once in the course of their careers, but the rewards can be great with persistence, knowledge, and working with the right companies.

But why such a struggle?

For the IT Professional, they take two steps backward because they trip over their own feet when someone sneaks up the ranks to surpass them. When someone sneaks up on you like that, they can very easily walk all over you and pass you up. They have, perhaps, done such things as continued their education and developed their skills so that they can continue to evolve with the demands.

Here are some other noteworthy IT industry problems that some succumb to and others overcome:

1. The speed of innovation – There is nothing wrong with technology advancing because that is more or less what makes our world go round. The IT industry is worth more than $2.5 trillion a year around the world and there are attempts in the world of innovation to thwart it, but all that does is make the demand higher.
2. Some are obsessed more over methodologies and technologies – The focus of the businessperson tends to be a little off in some businesses. Everyone loves a good gadget or a computer program. Many want to have the best of the best, but what that does is cause them to focus on the methods and technologies before they focus on results. This can cause priorities to become somewhat skewed. Sometimes they are convinced that one technology is better than another when it doesn’t produce the results that the “perceived inferior” technology would.
3. Arrogance – This is a big one because someone who knows a lot about technology could possibly make someone who doesn’t feel stupid. Arrogance doesn’t make anyone strong, but can actually make people want nothing to do with an IT professional who doesn’t put things in layman terms for others. A good IT practitioner can break it down and people will really appreciate that. Even if you do it without realizing it, it is good to be mindful of how things are laid out.
4. Hype – It can’t be helped – IT is super exciting because of the rate of change in computing power and technologies. It is literally dizzying. The world can’t operate without it. When hype is produced, then IT pros need to be able to deliver on that hype. If it is a world-changing technology, it had better really change the world in some way or any subsequent projects could fail due to disbelief. It is like crying wolf.
5. Focusing on “now” – We’re always told to live in the present, but not in the IT world. In IT, practitioners have to think about the future or they will get run over in a heartbeat by those who are running full steam ahead toward the future.

For each of these examples, it is probably easy to think of individuals and companies that have triumphed over these particular threats. They fight the threats because they are mindful of their actions and what is happening within the industry. They also know that they can be overtaken by up and coming IT professionals at any moment.