Success: Sunshine and Rain

Five years ago I was with a group of graduate intake employees where everyone was talking being successful, about their perfect role, their ultimate job and why they were the ideal candidate. They were all enthusiastic but I left them feeling half of them 'got it' and half of them didn't.

'Get what?' I hear you ask. Half of them believed they had an entitlement to be promoted to key jobs maybe based on their university, their degree, their general self belief in themselves. Yet, when I probed there seemed to be an ignorance about the hard work, the graft, the sacrifice made from time to time to ensure the job was done on time and done right. Not wanting to blow away their self belief and aspiration I probed further about working long hours and always being available, giving the bosses irrefutable evidence that your dedication was immense. "You mean you would miss a Saturday night party for work?" asked one of them. I replied yes and add that I had indeed missed 'that party.' In order to provide balance to the discussion, that working all hours, non stop could not be the case continually as people would burn out, lose motivation and their family and friend life would implode I simply stressed at the early onset of anyone's career it is a great way of differentiating yourself from the next person, having attitude over aptitude.

The other group 'who got it' were people who felt privileged to have the opportunity and instinctively wanted to do everything they could to make the most of it.

Throughout my working life I have come across employees who either got or didn't. Upset, raging and angry managers moaning to me about why they didn't get the role and the other person did. I used to explain to them , this made them more upset, more raging and more angry so in later years I used to let them sound off, thinking to myself you just don't get it. The other guy has a super can do, supportive attitude, will do anything to get the job done and is as experienced as you, where as you simply are experienced. One had aptitude alone while the other had aptitude and attitude.

I hope that my gentle interventions to these graduate intakes and other younger employees too helped them avoid the pitfalls further down the line... or further up the corporate ladder where all they have left is upset, rage and anger, not understanding why they were over looked for their ultimate job.

I wrote down the rainbow quote, above, after meeting these graduates where I quoted it to them. I recall it was by Dolly Parton. It is so true. We all love rainbows and sunshine. However without the rain we can never enjoy the rainbow as both sunshine and the rain are needed for this delight of nature.