Tuesday, November 27, 2007

I want to be part of the journey - not part of the scenery at the destination

While I have been focusing on writing a lot around marketing, there is merit in capturing my own beliefs and values as a professional. I realise that this is an area where definitions come through random thoughts and perhaps I keep thinking of stuff and forgetting in the conscious (while retaining in the unconscious). Beliefs and values built over a career may not be easy to forget or set aside - but I don't want to take that risk. Therefore, I shall capture what I remember today in this post - and possibly come back with a few more on this subject.
If there is one approach I have adopted - its the path of "enlightened self interest". I do not have much to say about this other than the three words - so I won't. Suffice to say it tends to the self centred - not the selfish. I very strongly believe we need to enjoy our work life - it is important to extract stimulation and enjoyment from what we spend most of our time doing. I also believe work is not about the number of transactions - but the impact created in each transaction. Each thing done has to be approached with passion and pleasure, to generate tremendous quality and impact in the output. Another value I hold very close is uniqueness - there is no point having a career being one amongst many. This may be safe - but it is not rewarding to the individual. Those who strike out in unexplored directions (typically the entreprenuer) create superb positions for themselves while having a ball at the same time. If this thinking goes into employment (i.e. uniqueness) - you can have the pleasure of entrepreneurship without the risk and the heartburn. Stress - a bugbear of modern professional living. I think it is overrated. Stress to my mind is more self induced - genuine stress only results when life is imbalanced. I think today's world makes it far more possible to find balance in life - as an example, I am genuinely stressed if I have to turn up at office everyday and cannot make exceptions for intrusion of personal life (child's illness, family tragedy or just a plain old holiday on an off day). In yester years this was difficult to achieve - work meant presence in the office. Today with automation and communication technologies our productivity has become location independent - this is genuine destress. The true aspect of stress we experience today is self induced - this is silly. You only agonise over missing a train if you are running to catch it - so chill for a while. Plan well and be prepared for the occasional roundabouts and you'll be fine.
When you start thinking like this - an automatic extension is the thinking on self sufficiency and the absolute scale. Two things here - I believe I can add value ; and I will. I do not require external sources to enable my journey to contributing in my professional life. Leading on from this - it is foolish to index own achievement basis other's - many other people will do better and worse than me; this should make no difference to me. Run the race against yourself.
I remember, when I left ITC to join HCL Technologies, a lot of my well wishers were aghast. According to many I was attacking my own career with a triple pronged assault. Moving from an established leader in the CPG industry to a fairly fledgling IT Service player (industry assault), that too joining the No. 5 player in this fledgling industry (company assault) and moving into marketing - seen as an also ran support function in this industry (functional assault). In hindsight I can say it was the best move of my life - you see; I want to be part of the journey, not the scenery at the destination.

1 Comments:

Blogger Thoughts... said...

Dear KC,

There are many thoughts that match here. The key being "Stress is self inflicted"!

Plan, Passion and Play are the three big P's in my life and I believe they should be high on priority (another P :-)) for all.

Regards
GK

11:27 AM  

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