I went to a concert this Sunday! It was fantastic, I had an awesome time. And, what do you know: I made some interesting observations. Mainly towards the end, when the last set was on.
You’re probably wondering what this has to do with Adproval, and I don’t blame you! Bear with me, dear readers!
Back to the concert: the most interesting observation I made had to do with the singer during the last set. Don’t get me wrong, there wasn’t a single bad performer in any of the 5 sets that I had the opportunity to see on Sunday. But this singer…there was so much symmetry between his voice and the movements he would make on stage, it’s as if he was so concentrated on his honed craft that nothing else mattered in the world while he was on stage.
The band in question is well known and they tour often. And at least from my own experience I never got the sense that the singer or any other member of the band was giving anything less than 100%. What does this all translate to? Phenomenal, seriously high quality work. Oh yeah, and the whole band seemed to be having a great time while doing it.
It was after observing these things that I realized how this information might inform my work at Adproval/work in general. Sure, there are lots of things that are required for great work: the skillset, the time, etc. But more than anything, and I’ve come to realize that you can’t hope to do great work without understanding its underlying motivations.
As I admired the perfect combination of hard work and genuine passion instilled in every member of this band, I wondered to myself: what’s the secret to producing great work and enjoying it? And then I realized the best question to ask yourself is: “why am I doing what I’m doing?” You can’t hope to be satisfied just checking items off a to-do list every day, you have know the value of what you’re doing first.
At Adproval, I do sales work and keep track of our company’s key performance indicators & revenue. Why? Because these these two things help grow our platform. And why do this? Because we see value providing a platform that helps brands and bloggers form meaningful relationships — therefore the more people we’re getting to benefit from our platform, the better.
Did you see that? Right there. That’s the value, and that is what’s on my mind when I’m working here at Adproval.
Steve Jobs once offered the world a nice piece of wisdom that I still refer to to this day:
“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work.”
For a lot of people, I feel like work can be a tedious affair. Something stale, meaningless. And honestly, that’s not something anyone should have to settle with. You can be that lead singer — that rockstar. And you know what? It doesn’t take luck to get there; it just takes a little bit of curiosity. Take a step back, look at how you’re spending your time, look for the value. If you can’t find it, look somewhere else. And if you can, then you’re in the right place. Either way, you’ll be all the better for it.
