The other week I was pleased to see an article by Fiona Smith in the Financial Review about Seth Godin’s latest book ‘Linchpin’. Seth Godin is nothing short of brilliant and has written a raft of books and has a brilliant active blog http://sethgodin.typepad.com/ that all offer terrific insights that are relevant for us all.
Seth has his finger on the pulse and always manages to be one step ahead of the mainstream. Whenever you read one of Seth’s posts or books you gain new insights and feel it was time well spent. Unfortunately, those who really need to be reading and up to speed with the subject matter that Seth writes about prefer to keep their heads in the sand, to the detriment of themselves and their employers. Those who tap into his research, thoughts and ideas are certainly the better for it. When it comes to HR, Recruitment and Marketing professionals, being across what Seth has to share is a must. Likewise, his books and blog are a valuable resource for all of us in our careers – particularly those looking to challenge themselves and achieve greatness.
Back to Fiona’s article that promoted this post. Fiona did a review on his latest book Linchpin, focusing on a couple of the key subjects covered in the book – risk taking and fear. Her article “How fear stops us from achieving” is focused very much on the world of work and how fear stops us from taking risks in our careers. The end result is that we don’t get where we want to on a professional level. Perhaps this could account for why so many of us don’t feel engaged or satisfied with our careers. The obvious is quoted, that the world of work has changed – no more chain of command. We have fluid and flexible work now with new jobs being created all the time. Today’s workers are operating in a world where brains, creativity, problem solving and calculated risk-taking are increasingly being rewarded. Subservience and following instructions to the tee won’t get you as far as they did in the past. As Seth so rightly states “more people are unemployed today because they followed instructions.” This is fairly major and many of us are still getting our heads around what this means and how we adapt our approach to this new world of work to remain relevant.
Seth goes on to explain fear – pointing out that “we evolved to survive because we are full of fear” and that we need to conquer our fears if we want to get ahead in our careers. What we perceive as the ‘safe’ approach in our careers is probably the most dangerous of all.
By coincidence, after just having read the article by Fiona, I picked up and flicked through the book by Dr. Suess ‘Oh, The Places You’ll Go!’ that was given to our recently born son. What struck me about the article ‘How fear stops us from achieving’ and this Dr. Seuss book was that we start life with so much potential. We are fearless and have big dreams. Our parents have big dreams for us and we ourselves believe that anything is possible when we are young. However, as we age we take fewer risks, we let fear rule our lives and can often settle for the status quo. So where do things go awry?
As Dr. Seuss writes in this inspirational book -
“You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
You’re on your own. And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where you go.”
At what point do we let others decide our fate? When do we forget that we are the ones who decide where we go?
Dr. Suess goes on to talk about “The Waiting Place … for people just waiting.” A place where it seems many of us are stuck in our careers. Not satisfied where we are; however, not willing to take the risk to make a change, to try something new. So we remain where we are, going through the motions at work. Dr. Suess continues in the book “And when you’re alone, there’s a very good chance you’ll meet things that scare you right out of your pants.” The book takes you on the journey of the ups and downs, overcoming fears, enforcing that we will succeed despite the challenges we will face.
FInally, Dr. Seuss ends with “Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So … get on your way.” Some of the best career advice I think you will find!
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