The great novel by the great Nevil Shute? Not this time. A great blog post by the great Seth Godin.
To get a new job, you’ll need to leave the old job behind.
Often, we try to pretend that growth comes with no goodbyes, but it does.
Perhaps we can go in with our eyes open, understanding that what we begin will likely end.
And when we plan for it, we’ll do it better.
And this great post about a mid-life/mid-career crisis. By, well, me, great or not. Hey, sometimes it comes together.
What I saw clearly, though, for the first time, was that my work output—as important as it was to my bosses, my compensation, and my sense of self—was not what would last. No matter how my career went, after I retired no one would care about the documents I had contributed to, or the processes I had established. Then as now, what would last was the people and what we meant to each other: the challenges we overcame, the fun we had, the things we taught each other, professionally and personally . . .
Sometimes, proposal careers are limited by company policy; sometimes (more often I expect) by personal capacity/exhaustion. In either case, Seth’s question is a good one:
What will you leave behind?
Wasn’t it Ottawa’s own Paul Anka who wrote, “As for regrets, I’ve had a few…” One of my regrets is that I focussed on the “work” and not on the “workers” or work-mates. When I moved on to new jobs, new opportunities, I made only a small effort to keep in touch with friends made in my former life. I didn’t think they were as important as the new life I was leading.
In Seth’s terms (and perhaps yours) I was willing to leave them behind. Maybe I should have; maybe I shouldn’t.
Jim T
Jim T – I know strong people-people who just keep adding to their group of friends and acquaintances – they never/rarely divest. Not a bad way to be in the world. That’s related to the question of understanding what will last (of what we’re doing now).