Persevering in the face of Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt

I saw the other day that IBM is hiring; they’re looking for 1300 people, but the jobs are in Dubuque, Iowa (if you got laid off or downsized, how many other jobs like that are there in Dubuque?). I don’t mean to pick on IBM though, companies everywhere are laying people off, moving jobs to different parts of the world and doing what they feel is best to protect their bottom lines.

Whether we call it that or not, lots of us (most of us?) are freelancers. Some of us earn a living as serial employees (a year here, eight months there, two years somewhere else). Others skip the employee part and work as contractors or start their own companies. So if the traditional play it safe options are disappearing, I might as well do what I really want to do because then, even during periods when the going is tough, at least I can always say I’m doing what I want to do. There’s just one big question though: What is it that I really want to do?

A friend turned me on to a great little book and I’m reading it for the second time. It’s helping me deal with serious issues like FEAR, deciding what I REALLY want to do, and PERSEVERING at what I really want to do. Here are some quotes.

“Fear is good. Like self-doubt, fear is an indicator. Fear tells us what we have to do… The more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it.” I’ve got dreams. I know what scares me. I think I know what I really want to do.

“The professional, though he accepts money, does his work out of love. He has to love it. Otherwise he wouldn’t devote his life to it of his own free will.” Yeh, that’s true. A while back I turned down an open ended contract on a job I knew was going to be a frustrating journey to nowhere and was going to drive me nuts. The money looked good, but the truth was I’d lose my mind first and not get the money anyway.

“Remember, the Muse favors working stiffs. She hates prima donnas.” True again. I envy those lucky people who seem to get all the breaks and all the publicity but what do I know about how much they endured to get where they are today? So, if I’m a professional, and if I’m doing what I really want to do, then “keep on keepin’ on” is the order of the day.

“The professional understands that the field alters every day. His goal is not victory (success will come by itself when it wants to) but to handle himself, his insides, as sturdily and steadily as he can.” Amen to that.

And there is this last quote that is a mixture of words from the German philosopher Goethe and W. H. Murray from his book, The Scottish Himalayan Expedition. It goes like this:“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, magic, and power in it. Begin it now.”

FOOTNOTE: The book I’ve been reading is by Steven Pressfield, titled The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles, 2002

[Michael Hugos, principal at Center for Systems Innovation [c4si], delivers seminars and briefings and mentors project teams in agile systems development and strategies for business agility. His newest book is Business Agility.]