It’s easy to fall in the trap of following others, especially since we read so much of successful peoples way to the top. For me a successful person is someone that has such personal integrity, that he is ready to test things which others think is wrong.
Without doing that he will never create anything new.
Short example of what I mean.
You have Paul, a young talent that gets his first job. From there everything goes fast, he gets promoted, he gets a higher salary, and he delivers year by year to his boss. Until the day he gets appointed to the management board he just listens to other people’s orders on his way climbing the career ladder.
When he now enters the management board he is not old, but still at the age of forty something he is not considered especially fresh anymore. Innovative he has never been, and he has only delivered what other told him, so he has a hard time to show what made him special. He has to find someone under him, that now can help him shine, as much as he made his boss shine ten years ago. A new young guy in his department seems to have that something extra, and Paul promote the young guy. From that day Paul’s “ladder climbering” is over. He doesn’t reach any higher, and nobody remembers his him.
He did nothing wrong in 20 years. That is what he did wrong. He never tried his potentials. He conformed himself to others thoughts, and when not having anything to show that where you own thoughts you can only reach a certain level.
My advice. Never conform.
Try to fail to conform. Aim for an up’s and downs-life. Aim even on more downs than ups, that will make you remembered. Because then you form a track record of doing, and from doing things, you get respected, because there are not so many people that actually believe so much in their thoughts, that they are ready to quit their job for them if they fail.
Tags: challenge, innovation, people
