Thoughts on Work #1 - Work Owes Us Nothing
Growing up I owe so many of my early lessons to a great mother & grandmother, hip hop (Mobb Deep, Jay Z, Biggie) and athletics. One of the lessons most dear to me is as follows...
Sport owes the athlete nothing...but the athlete owes sport everything.
The construct of sport – the team, coaches, fans, staff – owe the athlete nothing. Yet, the athlete owes sport everything...full duty & commitment to the organization, fans and teammates.
I think this is hard to understand for most people and may be controversial.
Participation is a choice and the opportunity to be a part of something, in this case a team, is a privilege. Out of your own volition you decide to come together as part of a group to go to battle for something bigger than yourself. For greatness.
Starters who get to take the field or court are few. Leaders who captain the group are fewer. Players recognized on a team, state or national level are even fewer. And the teams who reach the pinnacle are even more rare.
Team success in sport is a function of individual success. And the individuals who succeed know deeply the essence of sport, which to me, is built around the notion of falling in love with the process.
Great ones understand the process is comprised of a virtuous cycle of many years of preparation, training, practice, recovery, injuries, losses and wins. At their core, high performers in sport have a deep connection to the process.
They never cheat the process because they know their input & dedication to it is what drives success at the individual and team level. They give everything to sport knowing there are no guarantees and do so in pursuit of a clear mind & conscious. If you give everything, you can live with the results, win or lose.
Today so many folks look at work as it it owes them something. Whether it's friends & community, extra benefits, unlimited vacation, travel, free lunches, etc.
I believe work owes you nothing.
You are compensated relative to what the market demands in exchange for adding value. So many people conflate working hard or loyalty with adding value or driving impact. They are very wrong unfortunately.
Anything you get from the workplace over and above fair market compensation is the result of you driving outlier impact, becoming valuable and becoming someone worth keeping around because of the value you bring to an organization. Great people want to be around great people both in character and in capability.
Work is a privilege...
Whether you're at an early stage company or a massive corporation. You owe everything to the opportunity and in exchange are compensated relative to the impact you provide.
The by-product of excellent work is the opportunity to earn trust, autonomy, responsibility and the ultimate gift: an arena to learn, grow as a person and professional, hone your skills and develop great relationships.
My condensed philosophy on work:
Work is purpose. Work owes us nothing, yet we owe it everything. We have a duty to the (work, workplace, organization, results, etc.). But the work has no duty to us. We shouldn’t have any expectation that the work owes us something. It’s up to us to not cheat the process that is required to actually serve the work in a way that produces results and leads to a virtuous cycle of wins, milestones and purpose.”