Long meetings, goal setting, manager training, client meetings, shareholder/stakeholder meetings, people issues, emails, operations/financial reviews… And a long day at work comes to an end, only to begin afresh in a few hours.
Today during one of the above meetings I realised that a lot of people go through their corporate lives as another “to do” in a long list of things “to do”. The clarity of knowing exactly where they would like to head to is missing and most of their work life is spent doing a great “job” or “jobs”. For a long time I never knew why I didn’t like two words – “duty” and “job”…. Now I do. Duty means I am willy nilly having to do something because someone said so, because morality dictates so, because societal rules say so – duty “should” be done. I love drama and the big emotions, for me “duty” and “job” never gave a high.
And then people get serious about their “job”, the next role, the next big increase, the next firm… Pause – what are you chasing ? Till that clarity doesn’t come, every job will be frustrating, every great organization will be boring and every other person’s growth will be unfair 🙂
A corporate life has all the drama that one wants in life, but choose what sort of drama to act in, what parts you want to play, what roles you want to get and how critical the movie is for you – actually treat your corporate life like a movie, and that’s what it really is – there is a story, there is a director, there are many actors, a couple of stars, action, drama, tears and laughter. The big question is – do you want to just make money (inane dumb movies do), do you want to make an iconic movie or do you want both or you want neither…. Just as a movie without a strong script, a great story, great actors and a great director does not get your attention, a corporate life will also be dull and insipid without knowing where your are headed ! That’s the great story in the corporate drama – then living that story needs all the other elements :):)
What is your story ? Where are you headed ?