There’s no shortage of what we don’t know as we stumble from one experience to another in our lives. Every experience is replete with different degrees of difficulty and uncertainty as they are with opportunities for us to grow. This is the same for everyone. But what separates the winners from the losers in this game called life is what we do when we don’t know what to do. The answer we live and act out when faced with the question: “Am I going to retreat into the safety of my comfort zone, or am I going to risk it and do a bad first job so I can earn myself the right and the confidence to do a second, slightly less bad job?”
Empathy is not a skill set you acquire by watching a damn YouTube video. It is demanding work. And to show it, you must give your all. Attention. Time. Energy.
If you look carefully enough, you’ll see beauty radiating in the often-unremarkable sunbeam. And if you listen intently enough, you’ll hear music emanating from the song of birds and the murmur of trees. And if you concentrate keenly enough, you’ll observe patterns—discernible patterns—as the odd cricket stridulates from its great hiding place.
Doesn’t your heart become lighter when you realize that in order for you to grow within, you must first learn to grow without?
Bringing together a static group of individuals and expecting them to interact successfully and efficiently towards achieving any goals or business objectives is a fool’s errand. It takes time, effort, and a firmly distributed leadership and compelling direction to integrate their diverse backgrounds, knowledge base, expertise and to artfully leverage it to create a team that delivers results and delights customers.
In highly fluid, VUCA situations like the pandemic we are in right now, companies who can find innovative ways to keep up with and stay ahead of shifts in stakeholder behavior will be the winners. Companies that hurry back to old ways of doing things will perish in their misguided insistence on maintaining the status quo.
Pursue your goals and aspirations, however ridiculous they may seem. The world is rife with opportunities; be sure to go after them. And when you do—go after them with vigor. No ifs. No buts. Go with will, with vigor.
