A senior leader in my organisation caught me off guard when she asked if HR will be my career forever since I had graduated from a top HR management school. I have been thinking ever since if there is an ounce of truth to the phenomenon of inner calling. And even if there is a call from the inside, should we pay heed? And if we heeded and chose a path, should we journey along it for the rest of our lives?
So where, does a career end - when you grow old in the job/ when you have reached the pinnacle / when you are no more doing your best in the job?
It would be sadistic of me to make you read the entire post to get what my opinion would be. Our career in something ends when we are no longer useful to the world doing that 'something'. Since the jobs we do also feed us, we are most times tempted to believe that they are for our own good. We may be passionate about the career we finally choose to pursue but when the world does not derive value out of our existence, we quite have not justified the existence itself. Scary thought, really.
When pursuing a career, we should ask ourselves these questions -
1. Am I doing this only because I am passionate about it?
2. Is there still somebody in need of my services (is there a market for me) ?
For instance, I gave up public singing because I did not see the crowd being entertained anymore. Although I had good reviews for a few shows I performed early up, I could no longer do what I loved because that is not what others loved. I gave up table-tennis because I ended up runners-up thrice in a row in regional tournaments. I did my share of fighting but could not just carry on because no one got entertained except me. All said, we should exercise caution and not give up on things so easily.
One thing to be aware of when we persist and try to make a career is the time lost in the process. Thomas Edison would disagree with me. He had his share of failures and he finally succeeded. But when he did, it was a revolution in the field of science. It was a lifetime achievement. If everyone in this world waits for a breakthrough that would have their names in the history books, are we wasting time in the pursuit of one big game-changer? My feeling is that we should do small things, thick and fast without aiming for a breakthrough. If you are failing enough in something, it is perhaps time to move on and try something new. Failures are not stepping stones to success, rather are stepping stones to trying out newer options and success lies in one of those options.
Our power and skill lies in deciding when to give up on an option. The power and grit to go back to the drawing board. And the power to decide when to sacrifice a domain of interest for something with a better possibility of impact. But sacrifice is a different matter altogether. It would mean trade-offs for the greater good. But in this case, also comes an opportunity to learn and contribute in more ways than one to the world in the one big lifetime we have got.
If the career ladder is not taking us upstairs, maybe it is time to try The career jungle gym. If we cannot make the heights, we can at least go the distance.
