A few years back, two former colleagues we worked together in the same organization were affected by the right sizing of employees which the organization did as a measure of staying in business and continuously sustaining value in line with organizational culture.
Before this time I had left the organization to be on my own. I had left at least five years before. As they remained in the system, they constantly communicated their issues to me, especially how the system was not fair to them and how they were only struggling and not being fulfilled. In a nutshell, they were professionally disengaged.
I kept encouraging and sharing tips on how best they could deal with the situation. One or two counsels I gave was for them to keep updating their knowledge in line with the values and beliefs of the organization, to keep striving to apply the knowledge acquired so they do not only meet up but stay ahead of the curve and if they no longer find a place of engagement within them despite these adjustments to use adaptability, they could exit the system.
To the last counsel of exiting the system, they would always say, "We cannot compare ourselves to you," and I always maintained silence. This state of affairs continued till both of them were exited from the system. They lost their jobs. Their jobs did not lose them.
When I heard the news from them, I observed that one of them was jubilant and he actually said he had been set free from slave farm. I was gobsmacked when I heard this and had to ask: "Were you in bondage all the while you were working and earning salary and livelihood from the organization?"
The responses to this question was neither here nor there. One thought was that he was afraid of the unknown and I said, there was actually no unknown and that where he was then was the unknown he was afraid of yesterday.
I do not believe in anything labelled "Fear of the unknown" because you know what to expect. For example, if you leave a salaried job for self-employment or to engage in gigs, you do know that you will have to contend with irregular cash inflows as opposed to regular salary, you will have to pay yourself, which is only determined by what you generate and, of course, you will be on your own, depending solely on yourself.
Being on your own is tough. It is not only about being independent but using independence and applying interdependence as you engage with others on your terms and theirs. The unknown you deluded yourself of now plays out. Your fears are actually now confirmed.
Truth be known: You knew exactly what to expect. Perhaps, what you did not really know was the extent and sometimes the extent depends on how you deal, how much you apply yourself to fresh challenges and what you make of the new space you find yourself.
As I speak, these colleagues are battling with the emerging realities. As I said, the fears that held them in the slave farm is playing out in activation right before them. They knew it and like the grasshopper, they hid behind a blade of grass. Is there really a hiding place in nature?
Were they in a slave farm? How could this be the description for a place where someone earned their livelihood? There is a purpose for wherever we find ourselves. If you care to know, I grew tremendously tougher in that same slave farm with the opportunities that the tough challenges presented. It is not what happens to us, it is how we respond to them.
In that slave farm, I learned the power of discomfort. I learned to stay ahead of the curve. I learned the value of service. I learned what great values were hidden in working with a black hat thinker whose fastidious mind was constantly updated through experimenting all the time. It was a glorious time for me. But fascinatingly, it was not so with these colleagues.
Life always throws up challenges that are meant to help us design our lives. We grow through adversity. The moment we begin to feel stretched, we must begin to seek the values in the challenges aimed at building character. This is the only way that deliberate growth happens--when we apply ourselves to the things that seem to threaten the very things they are meant to develop.
Man always deludes himself trying to hide from the very nature that he is a part of when he is actually supposed to apply himself to nurture his nature. We have been given raw materials that we must intentionally and deliberately refine and this process is a lifelong one.
Facing reality is a value we must embrace constantly. We start by discovering who we are. We extract the value of discovery through development. We must be ready and willing to set expectations and live with how things turn out. This is experience. We cannot remove risks from our equation as we create our lives. But we can reduce risks by knowledge and this only happens when we seek it with tenacity.
These are strengths we deploy towards the end of securing our relevance in the space where we play. We must own our craft. We must learn to accept growth for what it is: A slow process developed through pain, but which earns us gain.
Continuous learning is a skill and that is why it is a difficult process. But not many of us know these things. We are safe knowing but safer applying ourselves to the realities of owning the knowledge. This is the initiative that makes us wise and proficient in the path that we have chosen.
Earning Mastery, the reward of designing our lives, is tough. The mastery of an art is a journey of consistency throughout a lifetime. We have to give our lives to it, and we must show that we are extracting value from what we have committed to.
But the question is: What path have you chosen? Until you are able to answer this question through consistent daily action, you are not designing your life. A life without design is a purposeless life devoid of a compass. Where is your life headed?
