Pushing the Rock“Easy” is not a term that should be on your mind, except when it comes to improving the experience for your customers. Outside of making life easier for your customers, there are few circumstances where “easy” shows up or where you are justified in expecting things to go that way.

If you’re at the early stage of your career, the transition from home to school to job is an interesting one.  If you are a recent graduate, chance are that you’ve already discovered that things aren’t so easy in this economy as you pound the pavement looking for a job.  While this awkward phase will pass in time, your immersion in the workforce will underscore why “easy” is a foreign term.

And of course, if you’ve been around the block a few times, you’ve already discovered that “easy” is rare indeed.

Things That Are Most Definitely Not Easy in Business:

  • Working for a difficult boss
  • Becoming a boss
  • Becoming a good boss
  • Finding great people
  • Hiring the right people
  • Undoing the process of hiring the wrong people
  • Competing in the market
  • Competing internally
  • Leading without authority
  • Creating a new strategy
  • Implementing a new strategy
  • Getting others to follow
  • Following
  • Making mistakes
  • Learning from mistakes
  • Developing as a senior contributor
  • Switching jobs
  • Switching careers
  • Continuing your education
  • Reinventing yourself
  • Balancing life and work

Guidance-My Top 15 Suggestions for Coping with “Not Easy”

  1. I’ve known a few people that seemed to have a free-pass through life’s difficulties, but for the rest of us, here are my suggestions and words of encouragement:
  2. Attitude is everything.  Make certain that yours stays positive about the challenges in front of you.
  3. There is no substitute for hard work.  Keep pushing the rock.
  4. Success is in the details.  Don’t be a 70-percenter.  Learn to finish.
  5. It’s all about learning.  Mistakes are your best teachers, just don’t make the same ones over and over again.
  6. As my former boss would say, “Man plans and god laughs.”  Interpret that to mean that things mostly don’t go as you expect them to.
  7. Hope is a crappy strategy.  See also the note on hard work.
  8. You’ll make mistakes.  Don’t wallow for more than a few minutes.  Then shrug your shoulders and move on to your next challenge.
  9. There are no guarantees.  There are no guarantees of how long any of us will be here, much less guarantees of employment and advancement.
  10. You’ll have to work for everything you get.  Get over it.
  11. Fear is the mind-killer. I love that quote from Frank Herbert.  Don’t let fear rule your life.
  12. Measure-twice and cut once.  An extra emphasis on quality will serve you well.
  13. Compensation is nice.  Ultimately enough is enough.  It’s a hollow goal to just chase the money.
  14. The joy is in the journey, not the destination.
  15. Touch people in the right way during your journey.  You go through this once.  Make it count.

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Notes from Art:

-Don’t miss the latest issue of the Management Excellence Newsletter.  Register at Building Better Leaders or Management Excellence (far right column)

-Just announced: The Management Excellence Book Series, with episode #1 featuring an interview with Bob Sutton, author of Good Boss, Bad Boss.