Yesterday, during our six hour drive from Ottawa to Toronto for Construct Canada, I had the opportunity to get to know a little better our newest employee, Jeff Rogers. Undeniably intelligent, he combines passions (and skills) for music and fishing, certainly enough (at music) to be able to earn a living as a performer and teacher.
Then why is he selling advertising for us?
His challenge, he says, is his family obligations. He and his spouse have three young children. Music, whether you perform or teach, requires you to work during just the hours you would otherwise spend with your own family. (Kids need music lessons after school, of course, and pubs, lounges and entertainment establishments are open late into the evening — just when you most likely (if you have kids) would rather be sleeping or with your own family.)
Fishing, as a hobby, isn’t such a problem. You can do that on weekends and holiday breaks — obviously this is recreational rather than professional fishing, of course.
As I listened to Jeff, my mind went immediately to think how he could apply his musical talents and fishing interests to our business. The reason is simple — I know that anytime we can meld the things we love and are good at with our work, we are far more likely to be successful than if we are doing work just for the money it pays (even if we are technically capable at the task, but it isn’t what we really love doing.)
I’m of course one of the fortunate people who have been able to combine my passions with my work. I’m a writer/journalist through the deepest part of my heart — I started my first “newspaper” at age 10 and achieved my journalistic dream of becoming a foreign correspondent at 25-26. Then I realized a significant but important truth. While it may be fascinating to live through wars and history, and travel the globe in search of the story, you can’t really combine this sort of activity with a normal family life. It took several years to work out the solution. I might not be able to be an international correspondent, but I could oversee a multi-national publishing business and still write lots of good stories.
I believe one of the best environments to combine your passions and your business marketing initiatives is through participation in relevant client-focused associations. Here, you can volunteer your contributions and lead activities within your areas of interest. This allows you to build relationships and friendships with real potential and current clients without being caught in the position of seeming like a sales rep. In my case, I always volunteer my writing and journalistic skills. In the case of the Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS), this has led me to a role as a contributing writer for the SMPS Marketer magazine, and last year, an assignment from the SMPS Foundation white paper on strategic alliance best practices for the AEC community. (I’ll be presenting my findings tomorrow at Construct Canada in Toronto.)
Accordingly, I suggested to Jeff that as he works with us, he look for ways to include fishing and music within his work. I told him that I have no problem with him spending up to 25 per cent of his time on work-related activities associated with his passion. (No, he can’t just go fishing on company time, but he could organize and participate, for example, in a relevant association fishing derby.) The goal for all of us should be to meld our passions and talents with our work, even if we need to make compromises and sometimes difficult choices for higher and more important reasons. Our lives will be richer as a result, and I think our families will be much happier.