“The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it…Don’t settle.”
Steve Jobs
Let me be honest with you. I couldn’t have written this mail nineteen years ago, when I was just getting started in the working world. It’s only now that I can look back. I wasn’t passionate about the work. It was just a job at the time and I was focused only on execution. But today I love things entrepreneurial and enjoy executing new projects passionately.
Of course, along the way we made many mistakes, and had many failures. But if you hold tight when there is a storm – you wake up much stronger. I learned from doing and from mistakes. Mistakes are in fact the second teachers of our life. You have to be able to think on your feet, learn fast and change direction if needed.
To me an innovator is someone who can think differently – and implement successfully. To innovate takes V.E.P: Vision (what do I want to change?), Execution (because a good idea alone isn’t enough) and Passion—you have to believe in and love what you do, if you are going to overcome all the difficulties and obstacles you meet along the way. As Thomas Edison put it: “the value of an idea lies in the using of it”.
There is an old saying that everyone wants to go to heaven but no one wants to die. Loosely translated to business, that means everyone wants to grow a profitable business but few are up to the challenge of executing the steps necessary for change and measuring results to assure necessary progress.
The company’s theme for this quarter “Execution with Passion” is designed to inspire passion and rally the troops for a drive towards Excellence. But the real challenge is to back up that passion with sound fundamentals and an execution strategy that turns those words into action. As you develop plans and put the final touches on your vision and goals for the future, make sure you spend an equal amount of time determining which initiatives are best suited to help reach your goals. By the way, strategic initiatives are more manageable and bring focus.
Defined steps and actions must accompany any vision statement including data to evaluate progress, metrics to drive the change needed and assigned accountability for delivering the improvement. Things always look better at 30,000 feet, but it is on the ground where the winners make things happen. Good luck as you strive for Excellence in this quarter!
By: Dr. Shilpa Thakur
EXECUTION WITH PASSION 