I have a friend who’s mad about cars, but he never keeps one for longer than about six months. And what’s more, when he buys his cars, he knows he won’t be keeping them for a long time. So he doesn’t really look after them.
Servicing doesn’t get done, cleaning is never more than a quick run through the car wash, and he isn’t averse to giving them a fair amount of ‘stick’. You see he knows that any ill effects from this rough treatment will be someone else’s problem, because he’ll just trade in – and move on.
I have another friend who isn’t crazy about work, but he does tend to keep his jobs for about the same length of time as my first friend keeps his cars. Not that he gets the sack; it’s just that he gets bored very quickly. He knows from the very first day on a job that his stay will be short lived, and because he knows that, his commitment is less than 100%.
He does just enough to get by. Corners are cut, liberties are taken and he never goes that extra inch (let alone that extra mile) to impress the people he’s working for to progress in the organisation. He knows that long before the chickens come home to roost, he’ll have resigned and moved on.
These friends are cavalier with their car and their job because they know they have an escape route – an easy way to avoid the nasty consequences of their actions. What happens in the long run in these specific situations doesn’t really matter to them.
Now you might not like what they do… and you certainly won’t if you’re the next poor person to step into that particular car or job… but you have to admit that there’s a certain logic to it.
The trade-in and resignation offer a pre-planned escape… one that makes doing ‘the right thing’, a matter of choice rather than necessity. But how do you explain the behaviour of people who live their whole life the same way… as if they will soon be able to resign from it, or trade it in for a new one?
You see the hard truth is that you can’t resign from yourself – nor can you trade yourself in. You have no choice but to persevere with what you’ve got and work with it. You’re stuck with you!
In automotive terms, you are the only car you’re ever going to have. In career terms you’re the only employer you’ll ever work for. There are no ‘dealers’ where you can trade in your life, when your personal neglect gets the outcome it deserves.
And as far as I know, there’s only one guaranteed resignation option in life, but it’s not one that results in you finding another position. (Not above ground at least!) This is so fundamentally important, it underpins and supports just about everything you do in life.
Imagine you have a company, and you are allowed just one employee. Not only is he your only employee – he’s also the only employee you can ever have. You can’t replace him and he can’t leave. The success or failure of your entire enterprise rests with him. So how are you going to treat him?
Are you going to let him vegetate on a sofa eating junk food and smoking Player’s Full Strength while watching Sky Sports – or are you going to encourage him in the direction of healthy eating, cleaner living and regular exercise? Are you going to leave him to pick up the job by trial and error, or are you going to invest in the best possible training so that he can operate at the absolute limits of his ability?
Are you going to leave him to his own devices, or are you going to continually monitor and analyse his performance – identifying any weaknesses and taking steps to put them right?
Are you going to assume that once he’s been trained, you can forget about him, or are you going to take the view that the world is in a continual state of change and he needs to be regularly updated and trained on new ideas and developments?
If he becomes unhappy or dissatisfied, are you going to conclude that there’s nothing you can do about it, or are you going to take the time to ‘nail down’ the problem, and come up with a solution for him?
Think very carefully before you answer, because you are that employee and the enterprise is your life. When you look at it like that, wouldn’t it be astounding if you didn’t invest the maximum time, money and effort in developing and maintaining yourself so that you are the best you can possibly be?
Kind Regards
John Harrison
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