Is your career holding back your work?

Not a lot of subtlety there. Most of us work for money. Many, many folks get into business, whether corporate contributors or entrepreneurs… for the money. Some work with the intent of getting rich. What I often find in the design filed is a more altruistic… more pure mission. “To make a contribution”, “to make things better”, “to do great design” are things I hear a lot. My personal favorite is part design and part business… “to create value in the marketplace”.

often stressed that the mission of a business cannot be about profit. He posited that profit must be a given for the business to survive, and that the purpose, the mission, of the business should be great… it should be a higher calling. To me this is a bit like saying profit to a business, is like breathing to a human. As an analogy I think it works pretty well.

For the individual it is a little different, but not much. You can’t blame a person for having goals and being career minded. We all want to advance. Career advancement brings more power and that brings the potential to do even greater things. It also brings money and security, things we all want to provide for ourselves and for our families. But should you carrier be the thing that infuences you daily decisions the most? Probably not. By doing great work, on should assume that as a result, your career will advance. If you don’t believe this to be true, then you should probably find a new place to work. If you put your career ahead of doing great work… say making great products, then your employer should probably find different help. I know it might seem as though I have over simplified. But it does seem very simple to me.