Photo by Joe Napolitano, Quantum Leap ’91 “Play Ball” (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Regrets, we have a few
I guess most of us remember certain points in our working lives where we think we could have made a better decision. When it is a question of our own careers as employees we are very often on our own. We cannot consult our fellow workers very easily because a rumour of our unhappiness and possible resignation might get back to the boss.
Speaking for myself I only ever left a job when I was unhappy with the business owners or managers or because the work was very unsatisfying, and on one occasion when I didn’t have enough to do. The exception was when the job left me.
Of course twenty-twenty hindsight only makes us feel bad. If only we could have seen around the corner to the future, things might have been different. It is not easy to plan a career as we go along because we are hostages to fortune with the whims of our bosses and commercial issues which we have no control over.
But then again…
As business owners, we do have control over our destiny. We can make plans and do our best to implement them. Of course the commercial environment might affect what we do, but we have more control.
As independent business people we are much more able to take advice about our work. We will more easily have made friends who can give sound advice, and we can find a mentor we trust, paid or unpaid. We can give our advice to others as well as receive counselling on our issues.
Oh boy!
Of course some people plough on blithely in their own way and never seek help. Yet it is so much harder not to make mistakes if we ignore the people around us and do not take account of external factors. Therein lies disaster. Sometimes I see people who have made the wrong decision at a critical time for their business. It might be too late to save them.
Do you remember Sam Beckett, played by Scott Bakula, in the TV series Quantum Leap? Sam found himself going back in time into other people’s shoes at a time when they needed to get right a critical decision in their lives. Poor Sam felt trapped, but he did get to put so many people in the right track. I wish I could go back and do the same for some who got it wrong, but I can’t. Of course I can help with any salvage operation.
If we need to make a big decision in our business lives, we all must get the best advice we can before we make that leap. Otherwise we just take a short hop into disaster.
Have you made a great leap forward recently?
