My dear grandkids:
Sometimes I run across a phrase that captures a core truth. I happened on this earlier today.
Some of you have already entered your working life, taking on part time jobs. Others of you are not far away. The rest of you have working in your future. And all of you have school.
As you go to school, as you read about big name firms like Apple and Google and Amazon, there is much said about science, math, imagination, and other front line skills. There is also much said about personal fulfillment, excitement about your job, making lots of money and subjects of this type. Moreover, you are growing up in a world where everyone seems to be highly focused on your wants, your needs, and your opinions, presumably so that you will develop excellent mental and emotional fitness. All of these things are truly wonderful and should be a major part of your thinking as you move through your lives.
But, at the same time, I want to prepare you for a shock. You will have an employer when you go to work. Your employer may run a business, a school, a government agency, a hospital or something else. Your employer has a major concern: the survival and the effective performance of his/her enterprise, whatever it is. Your employer cares little about your sensibilities if they conflict with his/her core agenda: survival and growth of the enterprise, whether it is tiny, or huge.
According to Tom Friedman, one of my favorite newspaper columnists, “Employers just want someone who will get up, dress up, show up, shut up and never give up.”
Can you pass this test? Are you willing to think about it? You can build a lot of fancy words around the five things employers must have from you. Lengthy books have been written about each of the five. But, sometimes, life is very simple.
Get out of bed, return from lunch, get the engine started, and prepare yourself to bring energy to your work or your studies.
Pay attention to your appearance and make sure you look like you are serious. You can be damn sure your employer is serious.
Start the work when you are supposed to. Be dependable. Be there. Be present physically, mentally and emotionally.
Focus on your employer’s needs and wants before you worry abut your own. Shut up until you have earned the right to be heard. Shut up until you have learned enough about your employer to cleverly negotiate for some of your needs and wants.
Be tenacious. Never say “I can’t.” Never say, “I don’t know.” Figure it out. Ask for specific help. Stay with it, all night if you must, until you know it, complete it.
OK. You may already know this. If you are effective in school or with your part time work, you do these things. Congratulations. You are way ahead of the game. You have a powerful foundation upon which to build. You have recognized something very early in your life. You can go a long way just focusing on the things that you control.
I want you to notice that you truly control each of these five things. The great Steven Covey called things you control your Circle of Influence.
When you are nineteen, eighteen, sixteen, fourteen, and so forth these five things – get up, dress up, show up, shut up, and never give up – may be easy for some of you. But for all of you, there will be periods in your life – when you are disappointed, hurt, sad, scared, insecure, desperate – when these five things may be the hardest things you will ever do. I have been there. Truly, if I wrote my life story, for whatever it is worth, it always seemed to come back to these five principles. Covey said, effective people focus on their circle of influence. Never is this more important than when you are in crisis.
Get up, dress up, show up, shut up and never give up. Think about it.
With Love,
Your Grandfather Jack
