My friend Jeff is a great technology consultant. He worked his way up a very competitive ladder in one of the biggest technology companies in the world.
Now he’s the indispensable man and his expertise is so widely recognized and deeply admired that people seek out his input even from parts of the company he doesn’t work in. His reputation is just that strong.
Jeff built his reputation and he’s proud of it. He should be. Fifteen years ago, though, Jeff almost followed a different path. He was a contract project manager then, and he and a friend started their own consulting firm.
They kept consulting with clients, but now they did it through their own company. They were successful, and their company grew. So much so that within a couple of years, Jeff was needed to manage the company, which meant giving up consulting with clients.
Instead, however, Jeff sold his shares and walked away from his own company to stay with technology consulting full time. I’ve always been fascinated by his choice.
He was successful at something many people dream of -- his own business. But he gave it up.
Why?
Because the company had grown to the point that going forward, if he was going to stay involved, he would be managing payrolls, benefits, banking relationships and teams of consultants solving clients’ problems.
But Jeff didn’t want to manage other people who were solving clients’ problems; he wanted to be the one solving clients’ problems. That was the work that gave him joy, motivated him and gave him a sense of purpose. That was the work he loved.
And to his credit, Jeff realized this before he went too far down a path that wasn’t his own. Jeff chose to focus his energy on his goal of becoming the best consultant he could be.
There’s nothing wrong with choosing to dedicate your career to building a business and managing the administrative responsibilities that come with it. A lot of people set that kind of achievement as their goal. It’s an admirable goal. But, it wasn’t Jeff’s goal.
That’s the point I want to leave you with today: don’t work on goals that are not yours. Take the time to figure out what it is you really want, what really excites you, what motivates you.
And then ask yourself, is that the goal you’re working on? If not, why not?