Reflections of Work
16 Mar 2009I have a question. Do you ever feel like the following statement?
I've been so busy doing everything, that I haven't done anything.
I feel like that sometimes. Especially lately. At least I am making some visible progress on my ‘Secret Project’.
Sadly, compared to my little side project, work has been absolutely boring. Certainly I’m busy at work, but the work isn’t as fulfulling as my side project. Part of that is due to the fact that there won’t be any merit increases at work this year, but we are still going through the annual review process.
I am starting to understand that there is a more fundamental draw to running your own business that until now I have overlooked. It comes down to Effort vs. Reward. This has really been driven home this year, due to the lack of merit increases at work.
No matter how hard I have worked this year (Effort), and I have worked very hard; it won’t have any impact on my paycheck or other benefits (Reward). Now don’t get me wrong, I love my job. At somepoint though you have to ask yourself why should I give 150% effort, if I end up with the same rewards as everyone else who is putting in (and I’ll be generous here) an 90% effort (there are certainly exceptions. Lots of people here work very hard, but the majority don’t seem to fall into that category)?
Now, back to running your own business. If you run your own business the more work you put into it, potentially the more you get back out of it. You control your own destiny. There are reasons that so many people who run their own businesses work 60+ hours a week. What are those reasons? It doesn’t always feel like work. They know that if they put in another 20 hours of effort, that they have the potential to get 50% more reward.
Again, I’m not advocating a 60 hour work week. I am advocating the fulfillment that comes from a 1:1 relationship between Effort & Reward.
A lot of this reflection has been coming from the books that I’ve been reading lately. I talked a little about What Would Google Do? in my last post. More recently I have been reading Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell.
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Amazon.com Review Now that he's gotten us talking about the viral life of ideas and the power of gut reactions, Malcolm Gladwell poses a more provocative question in Outliers: why do some people succeed, living remarkably productive and impactful lives, while so many more never reach their potential? Challenging our cherished belief of the "self-made man," he makes the democratic assertion that superstars don't arise out of nowhere, propelled by genius and talent: "they are invariably the beneficiaries of hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work hard and make sense of the world in ways others cannot." Examining the lives of outliers from Mozart to Bill Gates, he builds a convincing case for how successful people rise on a tide of advantages, "some deserved, some not, some earned, some just plain lucky." Outliers can be enjoyed for its bits of trivia, like why most pro hockey players were born in January, how many hours of practice it takes to master a skill, why the descendents of Jewish immigrant garment workers became the most powerful lawyers in New York, how a pilots' culture impacts their crash record, how a centuries-old culture of rice farming helps Asian kids master math. But there's more to it than that. Throughout all of these examples--and in more that delve into the social benefits of lighter skin color, and the reasons for school achievement gaps--Gladwell invites conversations about the complex ways privilege manifests in our culture. He leaves us pondering the gifts of our own history, and how the world could benefit if more of our kids were granted the opportunities to fulfill their remarkable potential. --Mari Malcolm
It explains how a lot of success comes from circumstance and good fortune, but how even with those things the most fundamental part of success is good old fashioned hard work. Of course after reading this though, I started seeing how my good old fashioned hard work wasn’t doing me any good as it was currently being applied.
I recommend that everyone should read at least one book like this one every year. It can help you see things in a different way. It isn’t a self help book, but it will challenge your outlook on the world.
I also think that books like these are great to listen to as Audio books. Learn while you do the dishes, change the cat litter, drive to work, shop for groceries. Learn all of the time. Then curl up with a paper book to read for fun.
Sometimes I’ll put on a book while I’m playing video games. Learn, and have fun; all at the same time.