How commitment and passion equal success
Entering my 3rd career over a
relatively short amount of years has thought me many things. From a gut feeling
of “where is this going?” to finding out about industry specifics that clash with
deep-seated aspirations, there are wide ranges of experience that are
encapsulated in ‘my life’. Despite so much content, it was always being my
internalised reasons and not the external ones beyond my control that have led
to my decisions to leave jobs, industries and even careers.
The journey in life has being many things for
me and “boring” could never describe any of them given the experience thus far,
which is why I am amazed at where change comes from in my case. When reflecting
on career and where to next, the usual attributes such as money, title and
function are set aside for a piercing kernel truth. I was successful before and will be again when my passion is engaged
that embraces who I am as a person as much as a professional making a
commitment to positively impact the world by what I do in my job!” This is
where our true power comes from which could be summarised by “success = passion + commitment;”
So not to undo the established idiom of
‘results = pay more money;’ I submit that understanding what motives a person
at the core rather then superficially is what we should all aspire to. To
explore the above idiom further, some folks relegate employment to a numbers
game in the pay cheque and give to the company exactly what they get paid for. They will never innovate a new
tomorrow for a company, but that’s ok, chances are the company doesn’t expect
it. So, if money and employment has relegated the employer employee
relationship to a market transaction, does passion and commitment exist? My
view is yes, its part of our DNA, it just doesn’t exist in the employee
employer relationship in that particular scenario.
That scenario is classic Market Culture
mentality and it kills companies that loose the ability to compensate for the
lack of R&D/Innovation capability by having aggressive and well-funded
M&A structures. Such structures
depend on relatively cheap capital and continuing access to a network of
M&A critical attributes such as market intelligence, contacts and capital
funds that specialise in M&A. The casualty in all of this structure is
sustainable progress by growing spectacularly in the shorter term at the
expense of longer-term sustainability. The larger something is that does not
have sustainable structure at ground
floor level, the bigger the risk of collapse when it reaches a certain size
and height! As my dearly departed Uncle often told me when working hard on his
farm as a child, “Start as you mean to
finish!”
The fact remains that we when we leave a
company for reasons other then diminished passion and commitment by forces
outside of our control; we leave a company for the wrong reasons! When we do,
we trade our happiness for the perceived benefit that awaits us in the next
job, career, industry or all of the above, which if not comprising of renewed
passion and commitment, it is guaranteed to disappoint over the short and/or
longer term. In my view this is unfair to the employee as much as to the employer.
I have written previously about happiness
indexes and how a passionate relationship with work brings higher performance,
lower stress levels and better results on an on-going basis. What comes with
passionate and committed professionals is a quality that cannot be replicated by
money, title or salutations of grandeur. The qualitative performance and
chemistry not only gets the job done but it also opens up a world of possibilities
such as innovation and cross functional development opportunities. This all comes with successful employees
living their dream in the job, which builds their company’s reputation to new
heights by finding the working solution which fits success = passion & commitment; the details may vary but people
in general remain constant.
In harnessing their passion and commitment, a
company is harnessing the key to their own future. It may take them down a
different road, but a path less travelled may lead to better things over the
longer term. In fact, getting the balance right in the success formula above
practically guarantees the opportunity to do so. The rest are just details,
known for many years and will be used for many years to come. Looking back on
it is a great thing when you know your future is yours to make! As Jim Rohn
said “What ever good things we build end up building us”, so in building a
better tomorrow, we can only build a better today, starting from our own character
to the unfolding of new marvels, which together will define our days!
Sources/Credits:
Pics;
Credits;
My Uncle - Tommy Reilly RIP 1933-1996, gone
but never forgotten!
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