The Best career advice I’ve ever received

It is already September and we are nearing the completion of three fourth of a year. In the corporate world, that means more than ‘awaiting Christmas’. That means that there are no more lazy days for those projects and deadlines as you always thought there would be. That means it is time for you to do the crass calculations of how much more you can achieve before the completion of this fiscal year. And this, the best career advice I’ve ever received comes against this backdrop. Very apt time, I must say.

When it is about advice, I always have a ‘filter’ on. I take it only when it comes from people who are walking examples of success – from people who are where I want to be. To these people, who speak their experiences, and have seen the ebbs and flow of life – I have high regards. I treasure their words like a trinket passed on by a grandmother.

Sappy !??!! Whatever.

So the earned advice that I am about to share comes from ‘my-boss-for-a-brief period’. Emphasis on the ‘briefness’ because I have learnt a whole deal of things in the shortest period that I worked under him. Some by listening to him and some through observing the unsaid. The learning happened without me realizing it was a learning. It was more of ‘a way to live’. I am ever grateful for him to have been very encouraging.

THANK YOU BOSS !!!!!

This happened during the beginning of August –  I had a new team – which meant new responsibilities and new possibilities. My team had put in a lot of work on streamlining certain things. Once most part of the work was done, I entered the zone of pandiculation I waited to see the outcome of my work. Things were moving at a slow pace but everybody around me was understanding and patient. There was nothing to act as presage to deadlines. Though mildly annoyed by the pace at which things were progressing, I was sure of the result and I let things assume their own pace.

So, all good right?

No, it was not.

That is when my boss put this thought in my brain.

“Patience is great thing to exercise, undoubtedly. But I tell people to be impatient. Patience is a virtue, but so is justified impatience”, he said.

Imagine the exciting moment when you conceive any idea – (remember, the eureka moments??) And the idea starts taking a shape in your brain. It further gives you the picture of the ‘outcome’ and you are excited this idea will give you the outbreaking result that will revolutionize your world. But what happens later? You wait for the world to catch up with your idea, deal with naysayers who pump out half the energy out of you and somewhere down the lane, things are bleak and the end result – the idea is abandoned or poorly executed! That idea which was already completed in your head!!!

Fatal!! As Eliot said ‘between the idea and the reality….falls the shadow’

Many of us view ‘impatience’ under negative shades. Like something dark and evil. The impatience that I am speaking of so highly is something synonymous with a sense of motivation, determination, chasing status quos, the drive to pursue, the itch to achieve. Not the kind where you fret about delayed flights, slow internet and unpleasant weathers. Not the kind where we hibernate for first half of the project and grab shock paddles and blast, to revive the project only on its death bed. No!! Think the situation through.

After these thoughts marinated in my grey matter, I turned a keen student of persuasion. I was able to hunt down the things causing delay; I peddled faster and shook things up to get the results just in time. I seized enough and that was a great feeling.

Too obvious??

The technology advancements, the market growth, the dot coms – all make it impossible for us to wait till fortune finds our lap. By the time you wait to seize the opportunity it might have become obsolete or too late. Fashion, television, music, ecommerce, technology – nothing is guaranteed to last in the same version for any length of time.  The mental infrastructure of people is also fast racing. Students now enter colleges with blue prints of their entrepreneurial ventures and dream jobs, already imprinted in their head.

YOLO, Carpe diem and all that…

My key take-away from this – Be impatient, be hungry, be determined to create your own career and life and not wait till infinity. Restlessness is natural. What needs practice is, channelizing impatience without releasing our grip on reality.

So there you go my friends- my earned knowledge:  Patience is a virtue, and so is justifiable impatience, Period.