Once I attended a networking event for new employees. As we were practicing speed networking skills, one question always came up. “So, what do you want to be in couple of years?” I was surprised how many of the newly graduated and eager to achieve youngsters responded that they would like to grow into a VP or CEO positions. Well, I could see they were not lacking high aspirations. But I really wanted to dig deeper, so I asked “Why?”. If you could watch a video with their answers in a slow motion, this is what you would see:
1. Surprise. Isn’t this an obvious goal of everybody joining a company? How can anyone ask “Why?”
2. Worry. They mentioned money, power, but then they got nervous. They struggled to come up with the reasons why this was something they really, really wanted to achieve. They were taught their whole life that the right thing to do is to shoot for the stars, so they did, never really questioning it.
It’s important to think really hard why we want what we want. You may say that you would like to be a CEO, because you want to have enough money to ensure that your family doesn’t ever need to worry about paying bills. But, what is “enough money”? By the way, not all wealthy people are CEOs, so there may be many different ways to get where you want be and maybe you are limiting your options by dreaming about becoming a CEO one day. Another reason I’ve heard was that people want to have a position where their opinions are taken seriously. But isn’t it kind of backwards? You will most likely have to have many great ideas and be influential in the first place to get up there.
By the way, when we dream of something, we tend to see only the glamour – as a CEO, I can imagine myself giving a powerful speech in front of my 10,000 enthusiastically clapping employees, or I can imagine driving a luxury car… But what about the downside of being a CEO? I wonder if any of those college graduates thought of how they would blend a family life with having a highly stressful position like that, or if they would like the frequent business trips or being criticized by media for their decisions.
Anyway, whether you are a college graduate or have 20+ years of career on your shoulders, I encourage you to ask yourself “What do I want to be when I grow up?” And then keep asking “Why?” You may realize that your reasons or motives can be only kind of sort of related to the job you envisioned for yourself and you may open up to new possibilities that would bring you the same outcome.