Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Inspiration

I look around at work, and I see a lot of those who see very comfortable where they are, even complacent. It seems to me that their value is centered around supporting their family, and staying in a stable job, with stable income.

I am not one of those. I want something different. I want inspiration. I don't want to work just for steady income. I don't want to work for the bragging right of working at a giant company. No, I want to work for something I believe in, because you are what you do.

This is something I (once again) realized after watching Simon Sinek's talk (embedded below) on those who leads. He explains that companies should have a value, a belief that drives their actions, and they should find employees who believes in what the companies believe. "If you hire people just because they can do the job, they'll work for your money. But if you hire people who believes what you believe, they'll work with their blood, sweat and tears." Conversely, this means employees should work for companies that they believe in, not just ones that can pay you.

This echos several others (as to prove my belief that truths always comes together). Daniel Pink said about today's motivation on TED that for any work that's a little bit more complex than rudimentary tasks, simple rewards does not work. Instead, their intrinsic motivations, such as autonomy, mastery, and satisfaction, drives people to excel. This is in line with Simon's message. People work not for money, but for their own belief.

In this blog, I've complained about how I'm miserable here at work, doing the work I don't want to do, just for the money. At those times, I simply complained that the tasks I'm doing weren't fun, weren't challenging, and I didn't find a reason to apply myself. But now I see that there's more to that: I don't believe in what this company believes in.

Actually, I didn't know what this company believed in. It wasn't communicated to me at all. "Never forget who we work for," this company's slogan always says. Now what does it mean? Who do we work for? Various companies from various parts of the world... So what does it mean by that? I simply don't know. A quick look at the website reveals a short statement for it's "Vision": "Powered By Innovation, Guided By Integrity, We Help Our Customers Achieve Their Most Challenging Goals." Again, it doesn't believe anything. Simply of delivering goods that its customers demand.

I want to work where I can contribute to advancement of the humanity, enrich its knowledge and art, or work to secure humanity's survival past the emptiness of space. Launching my career at a place as empty in meaning as void, and spending four years in that place is enough. I think it is time to take control of my life.