1. The 7 Habits of a Successful Dive Instructor
In Stephen Covey's best seller "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" the author lays out a framework for seven very simple rules to live by if you want to succeed in your field. Let's jump into this book and our career in SCUBA by immediately adopting a "career mindset" and let's sculpt our own principles to live by, going forward.
PREPARATION
The entire first act of this book is about preparation, and really, there's no way around it. If you're going to turn your life around and add a fantastic new credential to your resume, you will need to get your ducks in a row.
Make a check-list and write down what you need to accomplish in order to make a career as a dive instructor happen. Will you work in your home country or abroad? Full time or part time? Do you have back-up finances?
For those of you who are planning to teach SCUBA as a full time job (more about that later), you will really need to take it one step at a time, earn the necessary credentials, gain experience and think about what sort of life you would like for yourself.
Preparation will be an ongoing theme in your life as a dive instructor. Every student you teach will need your undivided attention, which means you won't have the time, nor will you need the distraction of having to figure out logistics on the spot. This means you'll need to make it a strong habit to prepare your classes from A to Z before they start. After all, you will be taking direct responsibility over people's lives.
The secret sauce for most successful diving activities (training, expedition or otherwise) is always preparation through thorough analysis, planning and communication.
DEDICATION
For most people, the only way to become successful in something is to be really good at it. If you're good at something, people with similar interests will find you and pay you for whatever that is that you do. The only way to become truly good at something is of course to be really into it.
Perhaps you've heard of the 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch. In his book "The 80/20 rule", he states that it takes only 20% of the effort to be just as good as 80% of the people in your field. It is the extra 80% of effort, of true, relentless dedication that will make you belong in the top 20% super-performers of your area of expertise. In this case, SCUBA instruction.
An often quoted statistic is that 80% of diving instructors don't renew their teaching credential after just two years in the industry. While that may seem a scary number at first, it's really only a problematic statistic if you are aspiring to belong to the 80% who quit. If you can muster up the dedication to belong to the 20% who make it past the two-year mark, you're in a very exclusive and well-connected club.
It's no secret that many people take the plunge to become a dive instructor and that not everyone succeeds. It will be your dedication that will truly set you apart. Keep improving yourself, work hard every day, read, learn and develop a "Yes I can!" attitude.
Rather than spreading yourself thin over five different skills, pick one and stick with it. If dive instruction is for you and you stick with it, you'll be able to turn yourself into a truly remarkable industry leader.
DETERMINATION
Let's be straightforward here: this is not an obvious career choice and you're going to get some quizzical looks when you tell people about your project. Living the life of a SCUBA instructor is the dream of many but the reality of only a few.
Many people around me were absolutely convinced I would be long sold into slave trade with, at best, a kidney missing before I would ever be able to support myself financially as a dive instructor. It's true that a little bit of determination is needed. There's more underpaid jobs than jobs with decent pay, and twelve to fourteen hour days are not unusual in the industry, but who cares? If this is your passion and you're really going for it, you'll have a blast.
Later on, we'll talk about finding a job position that's right for you but it's very possible that along the way, you may find yourself in spots that don't seem to be working out. Don't give up easily. One of the problems with the diving industry is that the market is frequently flooded with new professionals and they're of course easy hires for employers looking to pay minimum wage for mediocre performance. It takes time to gain experience and to set yourself apart from the crowd.
Most who enter the recreational diving industry as a "professional" will do so as an experiment. They're looking for a gap year experience or maybe even for an excuse to escape the traditional labor market with no real intention of working hard. I will say this many times throughout this book: treat it as a real career and it will be!
PATIENCE
It would not be hard to fill a whole second book with stories about patience. As a dive instructor you're going to need patience and a lot of it! It's a 'people' job, and having a passion for the peace and quiet of the ocean alone just won't cut it. You'll be dealing with people who are afraid, people who are over enthusiastic and also people who, despite their best efforts, just don't get it.
Ask any old school military style instructor and they'll tell you that diving is not for everyone. It's only for the lucky few who are fit, fearless and committed. While a certain level of fitness and commitment is obviously required to learn this beautiful sport, the truth is that with enough patience and practice, many people can learn how to dive safely. Everyone who can be turned into a safe, confident and competent diver is a potential return customer for the future and if you did it right, you will be the one who they turn to when looking for additional training; more than likely because you believed in them and got them to where they wanted to be.
Be patient, allow people to progress at their own pace, and work hard to ensure that you always keep a smile on your face while doing so!
FLEXIBILITY
If you're looking for regular hours and a clearly laid out career path, you should probably ask for a refund on this book. (Just kidding, you won't get one)
The diving industry, wherever you go, can be chaotic. Everyone has their own story about how they made it and you'll soon discover that no one got there the same way. There's no standardized income and in certain locations around the world labor laws may not really apply, let alone a minimum wage. In some areas around the world competition may be strong and you'll really need some flexibility to get the job.
I'm not telling you to forget your ambitions and work for peanuts, not at all. Work with what you can get and slowly craft your career the way you want it out of the options that cross your path. Try to get along with everyone, try to learn from people, and try to make connections. You'll find that the professional diving community is small. Flexible, reliable people are the ones who tend to get the opportunities.
SAFETY
If you're following the guidelines in this book, you'll be working hard with all your heart to build a wonderful career in diving. You'll be overcoming some hardships, coming up with new ideas and getting people excited about diving. Eventually, you will have crafted the life for yourself that you have always wanted to live. As I always tell my instructor candidates: After all that hard work, don't let ANYONE ever take that away from you.
Despite the joyful and enticing advertising images of divers exploring the oceans, SCUBA diving is dangerous and it's of the utmost importance to never forget that. You are becoming a dive professional and your job is to mitigate that danger. Any time human beings go underwater, there is a risk of drowning. Any time human beings breathe compressed gas, there is a risk of decompression sickness and lung overexpansion injuries.
It takes a split second of distraction, a moment of poor planning or a perfect storm of unforeseeable circumstances to put you in the undesirable spotlight of litigation. You are the diving professional, the highest in rank and the one who's ultimately responsible for the safety of everyone you supervise. All it takes is a single lawsuit to strip you of your job, your teaching credential and a whole lot of money.
We will be talking about professional liability insurance in chapter seven, and during your instructor course your trainer will take you through the proper steps of risk management. Though what you need to take away from this manual is that a successful diving instructor always puts safety above anything else. Fun, adventure and a decent profit margin are all essential ingredients to a healthy diving business, but they will always come second to safety.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
It's a common argument among skeptics that there's no money to be made in diving, that the market is saturated, the economy is down and the natural environment is in decline.
When Barry Coleman started diving in the 1970's I'm sure he didn't exactly know what he was getting into. However by the early 2000 he had designed his own first rebreather and not...
