Everyone wants a new job and a new career that will yield a raise in three months, or they're ready to move on to another new job and another new career.

Everyone's willing to plop down thousands of dollars to get on the fast track to the career du jour, but few are willing to make their own choices and hunker down for the long haul. They've never heard of apprenticeship.

• An apprentice selects a career carefully, because it will take years to qualify for it. There's no fast track.
• An apprentice works beside a master, and learns by watching the master work.
• An apprentice pays for his education with hard work and his dividend is new skills. Every delay in getting promoted hones more perfect skills.
• An apprentice is gratified to be paid in experience. There are no big bucks in the short run. He works hard for the opportunity to make mistakes and learn from them.
• An apprentice reads and reads and reads everything on his master's bookshelf, on his own time. His reward is answers to some questions about his work, and more good questions to ask his master.
• An apprentice learns from the ground up, starting with the basics and ending with mastery of his trade.
• An apprentice calls the shots and commands a good living after he has devoted himself to his craft. Then he's a master, and it's his turn to teach those who would apprentice with him.

Ask the best people in your field how they learned what they know. Most apprenticed with a master, and they paid for their education with long hours, patience and hard work. Then they paid again by becoming masters to new apprentices.

Apprenticeship is another word for education, and it implies both learning and teaching. It's the one sure path to success.