So, earlier I talked about what do you want and also for you to think about what are you bad at. Now, it is time to put those things down and for you to narrow down what do you actually want! Yay, getting somewhere! But don't get ahead of yourself. We must know what are we want to get ourselves into before looking into getting what we want. We need to be sure that we will not be doing things that we don't like in order to be happy doing what we are asked to do. To make it simple, lets look at a list of things we usually don't like to do.
So, basically we will need something that is higher up in the work food chain. We don;t want to be doing the entry level boring stuff. At my level, I can choose not to but for someone starting out, you got to prove yourself first. Speaking of being in the higher levels, we actually have to do more of the things that we don't like in order to do what we would like. It's a trade off. Simply put, we need to do it because we have the necessary skills and we reached these levels because we passed through doing the things that we didn't like in the first place. And we did them well. Next after knowing what we don't want to do, we have to think what can we actually live with? So please look through your list and choose, what can you live with and why? Why can you take it? With that, you will now have a list of things you will never do, things you may do, and things you don;t mind doing. Stay tuned for the next post where we will start looking at what we want to do! Often I have seen many who are not focused on their job. And when it comes to those who are supposed to lead, it causes much catastrophe to the entire company when they lose focus. Earlier on I wrote about how your boss contributes 101% to your work and also on how that can make you perform really well, or not at all. Whenever we work, we all need to focus on the task at hand and also on the bigger picture. Whenever we need to make a decision, we must always remember what is the greater impact of our decisions. It is not just about ourselves and we must always think of doing what is good for the company and also the people who report to us. The learning I want to share today is to keep focused on the objective, the impact of it and the tasks required to reach the objective. It is not just about getting things done but getting things done in order to achieve the goal. As I sit and write this, it echos in my head "What do you want to do?". And I find that this is a common question I come across when talking to friends about career choices. It's not that I am an expert in this, but for myself, it does help to write it out in order to get some clarity in my head. I too am always thinking what do I want to do? What do i want to achieve? But it's more than just that. It's more than what do you want to do, what are you good at, what do you have passion for... It's also about what do you not want to do, what you dislike, what can you live with and what compromises are you willing to take. What are you going to handle? I know for many its all about how much am I going to get paid and that no matter what, you can take it for the money. Kinda sounds like some profession? Not knowing what you are getting until u get in? So while I think more and write more on this over the next few days, think of this first. "What am I not good at?" Sounds simple? It's harder than it looks. Knowing what you are not good at will help you choose what do you want to do, and ultimately knowing what you are good at. So as part of my sharing on what i learnt from startup training is to simplify things. Many times in our life, we tend to think a lot of what we want to do, analyze the situation, what others will think and so on. This makes everything complicated. More importantly it makes us second guess ourselves. Even when it comes to our ideas, what we want to do, what do we want to achieve, we usually will think all sort of things and add more and more layers in order to cover what we think or what some other people think will be the shortfalls of the system. This complicates things. Keep it simple. Strip it down to the core And if its something you cant explain in 5 minutes, its too complex. Strip the idea down to the core, understand what is it that you want to do, why is it special an Well, I like Johnny Depp. I think he is a great actor, the roles he plays, the way he portrays characters... I just think he is great. Anyway, my point today is to relax at work and don't be too serious. Try to relax and enjoy yourself at work. :) I know of a few people who think that I try to be funny while at work... and yes, I do try to be funny. In my experiences, being serious causes everyone else to be serious, making people stressed out and makes others question their actions. As we should know, our moods are contagious. Whatever mood you are in will affect those around you and so when you are trying to save the world from imminent doom, its time to be serious and focus on that. But when you are not, try to cheer up and relax. What you feel will make your colleagues feel the same way too! I remember studying in sociology class years ago, the dominant person (usually me) will influence the people around them. And others will absorb the energy and mood that is emanating from that person. We all will influence and be influenced by those around us and thus cause a change to the social dynamics. So, when the world is not ending and no imminent doom in sight, try to relax and get others around you to relax as well. It makes everyone work better as we will not be scared of making a mistake. We will not be wasting time re-reading an email 10x just to be careful. We will not be checking everything over and over again just to be safe. Just smile, say Hi, make a joke or something. Lighten the mood and I noticed that work gets done faster that way. :) Somehow or rather, both sides don't seem to like each other. MNC's will say startup guys are
Startup guys also say MNC people are
Maybe I am exaggerating but that is the feeling I get when I was going through the FI course. It was not just local guys but those who were sharing with us from the US as well! But I really feel that MNC's will benefit from having people with startup training in the organization! Maybe not in all roles but for project based roles or product based roles they will be great! So why do I say that?
I'll talk about why corporate guys are good for startups later on... but these are my thoughts for today. Do let me know if I forgot something! It's not about the money. Money has clouded our judgement, our motives and our actions. But what do we want is to have a purpose!
As I ponder to share what I learnt from startup training, I realize I see many similarities in it while working in the many companies I did previously. Today I am going to talk about the fundamental thing of any company. Get shit done! When working in a company, the difference between a good employee and a bad employee is not how much they do, but how they communicate what they did. In startup life, it doesn't matter how well you can tell what you did, but what did you do. Did you get shit done? A lot of time is wasted in meetings and meetings and even more meetings to tell others what did you do. Sharing of reports, analytic studies, decision making, making sure everyone is happy and heard. It's important but many times, those who make decisions are not those who need the meetings, but those around you are the ones who do. Much time is wasted validating each others decisions to ensure no mistakes are made. But then, it is good as you will always know what is happening... right? We all don't have time to read emails because we are all caught up in meetings are more meetings. It does helps us come to a decision when we are not sure but so does a phone call. Anyway, I would like to share with everyone is to focus on getting your work done first. Reduce your meetings and always have a PAL with you during your meetings. If you don't have a PAL, your meetings are useless. Ensure you know what you are spending your time other than getting shit done. After the FI graduation, while we were having some drinks, I started to think "Will startup courses like FI be relevant to MNC companies?" Problem is that MNC's don't liek startup guys and well, startup's don't like MNC guys as well. There were so many mentors who said don't hire people from MNC backgrounds but realistically in today's economy, if you don't have a steady income or savings, how are you going to get a company up and running in Malaysia? So I started thinking, what did I learn in FI and would it be useful if I was still working in an MNC? How will it help? Will it be beneficial at all or would it make me quit my job? Well, lets break the FI curriculum down.
Later on I will expand more on to what I have learnt during this time and how I feel it is beneficial for anyone who is working at an MNC A simple way I would recommend everyone is to do like what I do, go buy yourself a domain name! It's much more memorable when I tell people my email address is bert@bertlim.net or iam@bertlim.com! It makes you easily remembered and greatly helps in your own self marketing. You don't have to get a blog if you don't want to but it doesn't hurt to get your domain name first. And the best part is that it's not expensive at all! Its not going to cost you hundreds a year, there are so many free options available these days and its easy for you to get it done! Here are some tips from me
Anyway, do start thinking of self-branding yourself. Even if you don't want to use it yet, buy the domain now! |
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