Success!
One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree.
“Which road do I take?” she asked.
“Where do you want to go?” was his response.
“I don’t know,” Alice answered.
“Then,” said the cat, “it doesn’t matter.”
By selecting a road at random, Alice would never know if she took the correct one. And by not having a destination, she would never know if she had completed her journey. In other words, had she been successful in her journey, or not?
Therein is Alice’s lesson for all of us, particularly those in the professions: if you don’t know what you want to achieve, you’ll never know if you are being successful. Far too many of us in the professions just “go to work” every day, grind out the files and the projects, and punch the clock in the evening. And then repeat that, day after day, until one day we retire or die at the desk, quickly forgotten by clients and former colleagues.
Some say the journey is just as important as the destination, and there is some truth to that. However, if you have no destination, there is no journey, just a drifter’s wanderings.
In the professions, success is closely tied to Giftings. If you spend your life exercising your Giftings joyously, effectively, and productively, you will be a success. On the other hand, if you squander your Giftings by grinding out a diffuse hodgepodge of so-so work, you’ll not be a professional success. Simple as that.
This is not to say everyone needs to be a specialist, provided the generalist option is selected purposefully. There is a place for generalists in every profession, whether that be the family doctor or the local accountant. That said, though, the generalist will only be successful and feel successful if their Gifting is actually the ability to provide high quality service in their field to a wider audience and do so in a fashion which is safe, efficient, and profitable. Among the most miserable individuals in the world are those professionals who stumble along without a clear vision and safe and efficient methods, always one step away from a negligence claim or a call from the taxman or the bank.
Professional success usually translates into earning a high income, but that alone is not the test. Some highly Gifted individuals choose to give themselves away for a cause or for their world. Mother Teresa, Albert Schweitzer, and Mahatma Gandhi come to mind. For most of us, however, generous compensation for the exercise of our Giftings is a useful marker of success.
A central consideration for compensation is this: all other things considered, a handsome payment cheerfully made is by far the most sincere form of gratitude for your service. In other words, if you are consistently paid well for what you do, you can be pretty sure that your Giftings have aligned well with your clients’ Needs and they know it.
But generous compensation tied to a miserable life is not success. As Saint Paul wrote, mentoring the younger Timothy, “Godliness with contentment is great gain.” Such a notion is universal. The Buddhist concept of “santutthi” teaches us that happiness comes from being content with what we have. The greater success is in contentment and the in the joy of what we do. Not detracting from the importance of generous compensation as one marker of professional success, the more significant markers are joy, satisfaction, and legacy.
The Alignment Principle, like all theories, needs some working definitions. For our purposes, then, let’s adopt this definition: A successful professional is one who exercises their unique Giftings in Alignment with the Needs of their unique clients in such a way that they derive deep satisfaction, create a legacy, and (typically) earn generous compensation.
If that definition, or a similar one, makes sense for your professional life, the important question becomes: “Are you like Alice where any road will do, or are you clear about your success destination and journey?”
Happy to chat, coach, or consult.