There
are those who claim that there are no bad jobs. And that if you apply yourself
to the best of your abilities, any job will lead to something better. I'd love
to believe that. But I've seen too many people busting their butts for companies
that couldn't care less, for companies that when they get more from employees
insist upon even more. And more.
Still, with any
organization worth working for—and probably the organization you work for
now—the following tip should apply.
Tip:
If you do a superior job,
even at the most menial task, you will usually be given a chance to do a
superior job at a higher level.
Business expert Dan
Kennedy talks about a young entrepreneur who started out mowing lawns. He worked
for himself so he didn't have a supervisor he could impress nor an organization
he could move up in.
His marketing plan
was to simply to do the best possible job the first time he mowed a customer's
lawn, then contract to do the same thing regularly. Beyond that, he scheduled
appointments and kept them. His equipment was clean and so were his uniformed
employees—once he got employees. He put out a newsletter.
His business now
grosses over $1 million a year.
He hasn't done
anything new or anything particularly complicated. He mows lawns. He does
landscaping. He just does it very well.
Tip:
Nowadays we're all looking
for the next great breakthrough idea. But often the biggest breakthroughs
come in doing something exceedingly well rather than in doing something
exceedingly different.
Mozart—arguably the
greatest creative talent of all time—said, "I have never made the slightest
effort to compose anything original." He merely tried to create the best
possible music.
Many of us lack
confidence because of what we perceive as a shortfall in education. Frequently,
like much of what saps our confidence, this has more to do with perception than
reality. Over 40 of Forbes' 200 Best Small Companies are run by people
who never made it past high school. Some of America's worst run companies are
run by people whose resumes are packed with impressive educational credentials
and what appear to be intimidating levels of experience.
Which doesn't mean
that you shouldn't take advantage of every possible opportunity for learning and
growth. You may just develop a few impressive talents of your own. And the
alternative to continued growth and learning is stagnation.
"When your job no
longer demands more than you have, do something else," Harlan Cleveland writes
in The Future Executive. I love that quote, because he's saying that your
job should demand more than you have; that you should never be
intimidated when that's the case; that you should have to stretch yourself.
There are bad jobs. Trust me, I've had several of them. They just don't
have to last forever.
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© Copyright 2007, 2006, Barry Maher, Las Vegas, Nevada
