Nothing Hurts as Much With a Definite Purpose

From March 2013 to September 2014, less than half of the time in my full time role was dedicated to interviewing, hiring, and onboarding team members for roles throughout the manufacturing facility I worked for. In that time, I hired 225 people. Just out of curiosity, can you guess how many people you need to interview in order to find 225 who have anything resembling relevant skills, an acceptable background check, and could pass a drug screen? Even then, it was WAY more than 225… And in case you missed it, I’ll stress once more that this was less than half of my responsibility at that time.

In July 2013, I received a glowing review from my boss - who had been with the company for just under a year - and he shared that my performance was one of the best out the 40 or so salaried employees at that location. That was followed with a but… And that but was that all he could provide was a four percent increase in salary. For perspective, I have moved into that role about a year prior and was still at the very low end of the salary pay scale since I had been in a lower hourly pay grade for years leading up to that. Cindy and I had gotten out of debt at the point and level well within our means so the small increase wasn’t a financial hit, but I did know what his pay range was and how much I was delivering on his behalf. I simply replied by thanking him for the positive review and referenced something I had read about “as you sow, so shall you reap,” then closed the conversation by saying I didn’t remember seeing his name anywhere in that part of the Book…

I went back to my desk and continued working as hard as I knew how. Looking back on the year that followed, I see now just how significant the results were that I was able to achieve. While hiring all those folks, I was also able to secure training grants for nearly $180,000 - which was more than three times my annual salary at that point - and that still only accounted for about half of my responsibility at the time. During that same time, enough other things had changed in the facility that I no longer enjoyed much of what I did; the parts that I truly loved had dropped well below twenty percent of what I did! 

By August 2014, after my next excellent annual review that was followed by what ended up being a twenty percent DECREASE in total compensation, I knew it was time to make a change after working for that organization for almost my entire adult life - and that hurt to even consider. After a short job search, I was offered a position that I was excited about and gave a little bit longer notice than was customary. And for what it’s worth, I stayed until after 6pm on my last day with that company to make sure I had every possible thing I could in order.

I don’t share any of that as a sob story, it provided me with some amazing life experience regardless of how unappreciated I felt at any given time during the last fifteen or so months I was there. In The Master Key to Riches, Napoleon Hill continues explaining the importance of having a definite purpose and being willing to go the extra mile by sharing this:

Depressions may come and go; business may be good or poor; the country may be at war or at peace; but the man who renders more service and better service than he is paid for becomes indispensable to some and thereby insures himself against unemployment.

You know what else all that can do? Having that clear definite purpose and developing the habit of exceeding expectations for the people who look to us for leadership - regardless of what’s coming at us at any given time - has a way of creating a winning atmosphere around us that current circumstances just can’t bog down. And while we may never avoid all the things that hurt, because that’s often part of the weight of leadership, nothing ever hurts quite as much when we’re winning - or when we’re looked on to a clear and definite purpose we’re working to achieve! But for that to go beyond just us, we need to make sure we’re building on it for everyone we lead so that’s what we’ll look at next.