Do you choose agency or transparency?
Success in any field requires honesty, and honesty requires transparency.
In other words, a person who wants to succeed must have the intellectual honesty to face facts, especially the facts about his current performance.
Most people don't naturally have this sort of honesty. It's not that people are intellectually "dishonest." They just haven't been trained to monitor, document and analyze their performance data.
Okay, here's a blunt question to illustrate my point: How would you feel if the whole world, via the Internet, could see EXACTLY how you spent your time yesterday, from 9 to 5 PM? Would you feel proud of all the things you were able to achieve in 8 hours, or would you be embarrassed that people will see how you misspent your precious time?
Would you even be able to show your timesheet? Most people, except for lawyers, consultants and executives who have an assistant, don't fill out timesheets, so they literally don't know in detail how they spent their days.
Some people might say, "Well, it's not the time you spend at the office that counts, it's what you actually produce in terms of results."
That sounds fair enough. So imagine if you had to describe to the world, every day, the one thing you were able to achieve on that day.
My point is that the world is moving toward greater transparency. Individuals, companies, governments, etc. all want and need transparency from other individuals, companies and governments.
If "the truth shall set you free," then you must first make sure that if people knew the truth about you, you would feel proud, not embarrassed!
The fact is, most people are afraid to show or reveal the truth about themselves. Job seekers, for instance, hide behind "great looking" resumes and "impressive, persuasive" cover letters.
(What does the letter "cover" exactly? What is the job seeker trying to hide?)
The success secret is really to abandon the widespread "agency" mentality, where people are trying to hide behind intermediaries like a website, a resume, a cover letter, or well-rehearsed job interview answers.
Everybody is trying to look good, instead of training hard in order to actually be good!
The success secret is to follow the example of great professional athletes, who accept to have their performance stats published every day in newspapers. They are not afraid of the truth, because they work and train hard, every day, to improve their performance.
The world of work, in today's global economy, is rapidly becoming like professional sports: your performance shall be known to everyone, and your performance stats will make or break your career.
In the end, we have to be 100% honest about our performance and be willing to do what it takes to improve it. Every day.
This won't be easy. Especially when you consider the fact that most companies do a performance review only twice a year!
In his memoirs The Age of Turbulence, Alan Greenspan wrote that the underlying dynamics of capitalism are characterized by "unforgiving market competition" and that they clash with the human desire for stability and certainty.
Employee who work for a big corporation may feel they have job stability, but that is a mere illusion. The economy is moving toward capitalism and away from corporatism.
Nobody's job or economic security is safe, and this is why it's so critical to carefully and honestly monitor one's performance every day in order to improve all the time. The drive for excellence is the only guarantee of a stable financial future.
In other words, a person who wants to succeed must have the intellectual honesty to face facts, especially the facts about his current performance.
Most people don't naturally have this sort of honesty. It's not that people are intellectually "dishonest." They just haven't been trained to monitor, document and analyze their performance data.
Okay, here's a blunt question to illustrate my point: How would you feel if the whole world, via the Internet, could see EXACTLY how you spent your time yesterday, from 9 to 5 PM? Would you feel proud of all the things you were able to achieve in 8 hours, or would you be embarrassed that people will see how you misspent your precious time?
Would you even be able to show your timesheet? Most people, except for lawyers, consultants and executives who have an assistant, don't fill out timesheets, so they literally don't know in detail how they spent their days.
Some people might say, "Well, it's not the time you spend at the office that counts, it's what you actually produce in terms of results."
That sounds fair enough. So imagine if you had to describe to the world, every day, the one thing you were able to achieve on that day.
My point is that the world is moving toward greater transparency. Individuals, companies, governments, etc. all want and need transparency from other individuals, companies and governments.
If "the truth shall set you free," then you must first make sure that if people knew the truth about you, you would feel proud, not embarrassed!
The fact is, most people are afraid to show or reveal the truth about themselves. Job seekers, for instance, hide behind "great looking" resumes and "impressive, persuasive" cover letters.
(What does the letter "cover" exactly? What is the job seeker trying to hide?)
The success secret is really to abandon the widespread "agency" mentality, where people are trying to hide behind intermediaries like a website, a resume, a cover letter, or well-rehearsed job interview answers.
Everybody is trying to look good, instead of training hard in order to actually be good!
The success secret is to follow the example of great professional athletes, who accept to have their performance stats published every day in newspapers. They are not afraid of the truth, because they work and train hard, every day, to improve their performance.
The world of work, in today's global economy, is rapidly becoming like professional sports: your performance shall be known to everyone, and your performance stats will make or break your career.
In the end, we have to be 100% honest about our performance and be willing to do what it takes to improve it. Every day.
This won't be easy. Especially when you consider the fact that most companies do a performance review only twice a year!
In his memoirs The Age of Turbulence, Alan Greenspan wrote that the underlying dynamics of capitalism are characterized by "unforgiving market competition" and that they clash with the human desire for stability and certainty.
Employee who work for a big corporation may feel they have job stability, but that is a mere illusion. The economy is moving toward capitalism and away from corporatism.
Nobody's job or economic security is safe, and this is why it's so critical to carefully and honestly monitor one's performance every day in order to improve all the time. The drive for excellence is the only guarantee of a stable financial future.
posted by Super Peter at 1:50 AM
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