The results and responsibility
These days, I think a lot about what things I want to teach my daughter. While I think it’s very important to lead by example, I also know that if you don’t verbalize the important things, it’s easy for others to misunderstand exactly what example you’re trying to set.
And I’m starting to think of all the things that I’m not sure how to teach her.
For example, this is America, where they say you can be whatever you want to be. Now, discounting the obvious pitfalls of that (for example, not everybody can be President; if that were true, we’d have to have multiple Presidents at once), I have to disagree with the implications of that premise.
As nice as it would be to believe, we are not the captains of our own fates. There are real-world variables at play that affect the outcomes of our decisions.
As I mentioned in my mock draft preamble, I lost a job that I very much enjoyed — and that I was good at — in a corporate reorganization a year and a half ago. The company was nice enough to give me another position, and I really do believe that they tried to do right by me. I hold no ill will against the company for that decision. I understand that business happens, and they were very clear that the elimination of the position that I had held had nothing to do with poor results or anything personal. It was a numbers thing.
And that’s exactly my point. Numbers things happens. Random things happen. Bad things happen. We cannot control those issues.
And I’m starting to think of all the things that I’m not sure how to teach her.
For example, this is America, where they say you can be whatever you want to be. Now, discounting the obvious pitfalls of that (for example, not everybody can be President; if that were true, we’d have to have multiple Presidents at once), I have to disagree with the implications of that premise.
As nice as it would be to believe, we are not the captains of our own fates. There are real-world variables at play that affect the outcomes of our decisions.
As I mentioned in my mock draft preamble, I lost a job that I very much enjoyed — and that I was good at — in a corporate reorganization a year and a half ago. The company was nice enough to give me another position, and I really do believe that they tried to do right by me. I hold no ill will against the company for that decision. I understand that business happens, and they were very clear that the elimination of the position that I had held had nothing to do with poor results or anything personal. It was a numbers thing.
And that’s exactly my point. Numbers things happens. Random things happen. Bad things happen. We cannot control those issues.