Success is more about direction than distance
MANY managers spend a lot of their working time thinking about how to accelerate their promotions, how to impress the boss more than their colleagues and how to earn money faster. What’s the aim of a career? To go far, or in the right direction. Ideally, you should achieve both, but that is not easy. If you watch club-level golfers, you will see the point. Some stand on the tee box with the longest club, and whack the ball with the might of an ox. They are the ones who want to see the ball soar away with an accelerating speed. A few seconds later, when they observe where the ball has landed, they curse and crib. The ball has, perhaps, been lost or has landed in a difficult spot, from where it would be difficult to play the next shot. Other golfers take a measured approach of landing the ball on the fairway at a spot where they want to land. For them, the next stroke is as important as this first tee shot. Both are valid ways to play the game. If you are talented, you may learn to do both ie., go far as well as land where you want. Many clublevel golfers never achieve this. The purpose of a career is to utilise your potential, as that alone can give you satisfaction and a sense of self-esteem. It becomes possible to achieve such a satisfaction when you are surrounded by friendship and trust, which are essential for accomplishment in managerial tasks. Nobody can do a management job all by himself, this is a well-accepted fact. It is the web of relationships and friendship that enables a manager to navigate the choppy waters that the ship of his career will constantly encounter. There was a movie made by Frank Capra which I recall seeing when I was young. It starred James Stewart and Donna Reed and was named It’s a wonderful life. The story is about a man, who thinks he is a failure. So he prepares to commit suicide. An angel is sent to prevent his act and to rescue him. The angel finds that the man lacks selfesteem and he thinks that his friends and relations do not care for him much. The angel takes him in an invisible form to overhear what his friends and relations think of him in reality. He is surprised to know that he is loved and that he mattered to them. His own perception of his failures in his career and business activities bothered them little, and their love for him was overwhelming. He feels blessed. Moral of the film — No man is a failure who has friends. Well, it is the same with your career. You take your own successes too seriously, and your failures in the same way. Other people do not think about either with the same intensity, they have better things to do! If you aim in the right direction, the best possible distance will come automatically.
MANY managers spend a lot of their working time thinking about how to accelerate their promotions, how to impress the boss more than their colleagues and how to earn money faster. What’s the aim of a career? To go far, or in the right direction. Ideally, you should achieve both, but that is not easy. If you watch club-level golfers, you will see the point. Some stand on the tee box with the longest club, and whack the ball with the might of an ox. They are the ones who want to see the ball soar away with an accelerating speed. A few seconds later, when they observe where the ball has landed, they curse and crib. The ball has, perhaps, been lost or has landed in a difficult spot, from where it would be difficult to play the next shot. Other golfers take a measured approach of landing the ball on the fairway at a spot where they want to land. For them, the next stroke is as important as this first tee shot. Both are valid ways to play the game. If you are talented, you may learn to do both ie., go far as well as land where you want. Many clublevel golfers never achieve this. The purpose of a career is to utilise your potential, as that alone can give you satisfaction and a sense of self-esteem. It becomes possible to achieve such a satisfaction when you are surrounded by friendship and trust, which are essential for accomplishment in managerial tasks. Nobody can do a management job all by himself, this is a well-accepted fact. It is the web of relationships and friendship that enables a manager to navigate the choppy waters that the ship of his career will constantly encounter. There was a movie made by Frank Capra which I recall seeing when I was young. It starred James Stewart and Donna Reed and was named It’s a wonderful life. The story is about a man, who thinks he is a failure. So he prepares to commit suicide. An angel is sent to prevent his act and to rescue him. The angel finds that the man lacks selfesteem and he thinks that his friends and relations do not care for him much. The angel takes him in an invisible form to overhear what his friends and relations think of him in reality. He is surprised to know that he is loved and that he mattered to them. His own perception of his failures in his career and business activities bothered them little, and their love for him was overwhelming. He feels blessed. Moral of the film — No man is a failure who has friends. Well, it is the same with your career. You take your own successes too seriously, and your failures in the same way. Other people do not think about either with the same intensity, they have better things to do! If you aim in the right direction, the best possible distance will come automatically.
source: Economic Times (6/11/2006)
No comments:
Post a Comment