Recently I’ve been helping a close friend with a job search which made me think of the last time I went through the process a few years ago. Specifically, it reminded me of an opportunity with a company in the promotional products industry where I was vying for an executive sales leadership position. As part of the process, they sent me a questionnaire to see how I would fit culturally in their environment – a smart move considering cultural alignment is the single biggest indicator of hiring success.
This, however, was not your typical pre-employment screening questionnaire designed to slot the candidate as a particular personality type.
Instead, the majority of the questions required thoughtful and careful consideration – something that seems to be at odds with current hiring practices that tend to reward homogeneous thinking. The one that still sticks out to me is this nugget: “If you were 80 years old, what would you tell your children?” After reviewing my answers, which are below, I realized how many of the answers apply to business success as well:
• Take risks – Living a full life means taking chances and seizing opportunities, especially the ones that make you uncomfortable. Life truly begins when we step outside our comfort zone.
• Follow your passion – Find what you love to do and do it with hard-driving passion. When you do that, the road to success will often find you.
• Take the hard road – Very few worthwhile things in life come easy. Relish taking the hard road and embrace the journey. Many times the journey is more rewarding than the goal.
• Change – Change is a certainty so get comfortable with it. At the very least, embrace change. Better yet, drive it when needed.
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• Own your mistakes – Mistakes allow you to learn and grow. Take responsibility, apologize, and change the behavior.
• Give back – You were blessed with many advantages, but it’s important to realize the world is filled with people far less fortunate. Find causes that move you and donate your time, talents, energy, and money. Leave this world a better place than you found it.
• Unplug – The world is filled with wondrous technology that we never imagined possible only 10 years ago. While they are marvelous, it’s critical to remember that your heart and soul will only be fulfilled by connecting with people – looking them in the eye, laughing at a joke, empathizing with a friend during a time of distress, sharing your joys with someone you love. Those are soul-fulfilling experiences that can never be replaced by machines.
• Think – Take at least 30 minute a day to truly think. Turn off the music, the computer, the cellphone, and the virtual reality simulator to allow yourself to be enveloped in silence. Let your thoughts drift to magical places without distraction – there’s a reason that many of us do our best thinking in the silence of the shower.
• Be nice – We all remember this as Dalton’s third rule in the classic movie, “Road House”. The world can be a challenging and difficult place, so spread joy wherever and whenever you can. Smile at people, take a genuine interest in what they say, help someone because you can, be patient when frustrated, and listen with your eyes and heart, as well as your ears.
• Be you – There is only one you, and that’s a good thing. Protect your individuality as fiercely as possible because there is no glory in blending in with the crowd.
While the job opportunity didn’t pan out, I still smile when I think of the very different interview process that allowed me to learn more about myself that I thought possible in that setting. Sometimes the business advice we need to hear are the words we should share with our children.
Bill has over 15 years working in executive leadership positions at leading promotional products distributorships. In 2014, he launched brandivate – the first executive outsourcing company solely focused on helping small and medium sized-promotional products enterprises responsibly grow their business. A featured speaker at numerous industry events, a serial creator of content marketing, vice president of the Promotional Products Association of the Mid-South (PPAMS), and PromoKitchen chef, Bill has extensive experience coaching sales teams, creating successful marketing campaigns, developing operational policies and procedures, creating and developing winning RFP responses, and presenting winning promotional products solutions to Fortune 500 clients. He can be reached at bill@brandivatemarketing.com.