Memoirs of GB Episode 24 : We are all in this together @ Work

If you enjoy what you do at work, you will build a home in your organization, you will also build a body of affection, with the people you’ve helped, who’ve helped you back. The ones you meet now, who will notice you, challenge you, work with you, and watch your back. Maybe they will be your strength during good and bad times in your career path.

If you can fall in love with the work, with people you work with, with your dreams and their dreams then you are forging a relationship for life. ?Whatever it was that got you to work for your organization, don’t let it go. Whatever kept you in that organization, don’t let that go. Believe in your work friends. Believe that what you and your friends must say & that the way you’re saying it — is something new in the world. You are creating something productive in this world.

Find something more important than you are and dedicate your work towards achieving that dream for your organization.

One of the interesting things about success is that we think we know what it means. A lot of the time our ideas about what it would mean to live successfully are not our own. They’re sucked in from other people. And we also suck in messages from everything from the television to advertising to marketing, etc. These are hugely powerful forces that define what we want and how we view ourselves. What I want to argue for is not that we should give up on our ideas of success, but that we should make sure that they are our own. We should focus in on our ideas and make sure that we own them, that we’re truly the authors of our own ambitions. Because it’s bad enough not getting what you want, but it’s even worse to have an idea of what it is you want and find out at the end of the journey that it isn’t, in fact, what you wanted all along.

The most important thing a successful person can learn professionally is where to draw the red line that separates what you are willing to do, and what you are not. The more you need the money, the more people will tell you what to do. The less control you will have. The more odd pills you will have to swallow. The less joy it will bring. Know this and plan accordingly.

Edison's Formula for Success

Have you heard about how Thomas Alva Edison interviewed people who wanted to work with him? That's an interesting story there! After the initial round of questions, if Edison came across a bright candidate, he would take him out to dinner before making up his mind on whether to hire him. The interview would continue over dinner, and when the food arrived, Edison would take a bite and remark, 'I think this needs more salt!' And then he'd watch the candidate.

If the candidate added salt before tasting the food, he would not be hired. However, if the candidate tasted the food first and then decided if salt needed to be added Edison would hire him. Edison knew that people who easily believed what other people had to say, or made assumptions without first-hand knowledge or experience, would not be able to look afresh at problems and find innovative solutions. They would have closed minds, he reckoned. Edison was looking for people with a mind of their own and the conviction to back it.

We all know people whose potential and dreams remained unrealized because they did not have the conviction to back their instincts. They chose a line of study or career simply because someone else said it was best for them. They did not chase their passion just because someone said it was doomed, it wouldn't work. In many cases, they gave up even without trying, assuming they couldn't do it - simply because someone else had said it couldn't be done. We all have had great ideas but not all of us have gone on to work on them and make them come to life. Only to discover later that someone else did exactly what we'd had in mind and found great success.

Do your own thing. Make mistakes. Live on the edge. Chase your dreams. Don't just go by what other people tell you. That may be safe but it's unlikely to get you the success you deserve.

Go for it. And yes, don't blindly add the salt!

Quoting what Steve Jobs said

Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on.

So, keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle."

Godspeed

Dinesh Chandrasekar DC*

P.S: All views expressed here are my personal views and opinion and have no bearing to the organization I work.?