The value of following directions
Whew! First Forward post from me in a long, long time. Apologies up front. But no excuses. (None are adequate.) Just diving in to the post …
I’ve been working hard the last year or so. Buried myself in getting oriented in my new career. All’s well. Good news is I’m finally surfacing with some thoughts and perspectives worth sharing. (Well, I think they’re worth sharing anyway.) Interestingly, over the past year, I’ve had several lessons from my younger years resurface and be overwhelmingly relevant.
It dates back to when I was in high school, working for my parents at our family business. My mother was my boss. She supervised many a’ high school students over the years and she earned a reputation for being a tough boss. Very high standards for her employees. She expected the best from them, and by golly, she would work with them patiently and firmly until they were polished into first-rate employees with stellar work ethics. Me working for her? Same top-notch standards applied, naturally.
My random lesson from Mom for today: follow directions.
This simple, seemingly insignificant thing is actually enormously important and can set you apart from other young professionals. It’s easy to shrug this off. “Well, of course. Everybody knows you should follow directions.” Yes. You SHOULD. But you’d be surprised how few people actually DO. Even fewer who do this well.