The famous quote by Gordon Gekko, the character in the 1987 movie Wall Street is “You win a few; you lose a few; but you keep on fighting. And if you need a friend, get a dog……….
He was aiming it at a young naïve money trader played by a young Charlie Sheen. Nice bloke, bit quiet, whatever happened to him ?
He really could have said it to any sales person though and he would have been right ….but for the wrong reasons.
You need a dog not because he/she is the only creature in your world that will actually be friendly to you but because our dogs assess us in a completely different way to our managers, colleagues, business leaders etc
Let’s assume that you are smart enough to have decided 2.5 years ago to acquire a beautiful and loving Mini-Fox Terrier called Jack (for instance).
Your dog lives in a world bereft of KPI’s, profit and loss, cost per thousand and post-campaign analysis.
…………Jack (or Rover, Fifi, Scamp……..) just wants a world where he has a roof over his head, a basket to sleep in and as many chicken necks and dog biscuits as you can throw at him.
Your dog cares not for year on year revenue performance, quarterly reviews, slashed rate cards, declining circulations, distress selling and falling price points.
…………Jack cares about being cuddled a lot, getting a bath once a week (ish) and having you throw a ball around the garden with them.
Your dog never looks at you and sees an underperforming drag on company resources, who is clearly coasting along on past glories, desperately hoping for a rising market to cover your (not mine, your….let’s be clear on that) lame sales performance.
…………Jack sees a wonderful, trustworthy, loyal and caring individual, without whom their life would be empty and miserable.
Now I just have to train Jack to see a stunningly handsome business superstar and I have cracked it !
I’m not a dog person. I get it, but it’s not me. I remember a sales manager I had once – a dog person, a great guy, one I’m still in touch with as I learned a lot from him. He loved Wall Street too – and the ‘get a dog’ speech (advice he took to heart, quite literally.) His view was that your job is your job, and if you need emotional connection, find it somewhere else.I understand that point of view. I kind of agree with it too.
But quite a few people I’ve worked alongside saw their employer as responsible for their own happiness. They were unhappy, creatively unfulfilled maybe, or just stuck in a rut. Some even felt that was their employer’s fault, bitching about their lack of progress or dissatisfaction. This is not a view I share.
But back to cats. Cats see the world very differently. Cats won’t wait for you to feed them. They don’t want you to bathe them, or take them for walks. Cats don’t need your companionship, though they’ll take it where they can find it. Cats take responsibility, and the best ones I’ve known approach life with a kind of world-weary, all-in-this-together pragmatism I love. Unlike some overly reliant co-workers I’ve had.
We all are responsible for our own careers, including it’s development. And ultimately, our own happiness within it. Once you realise that, you’re on the road forwards . . . just as soon as you brush all the pet hair off your jacket . . .
Thanks very much for replying Mike. Yes the eternal cats v dogs conundrum. I used to like cats, until I had one: I used to dislike dogs, until I had one !
But you are right about people needing to take responsibility for their own work happiness though. I’ll try and avoid the lazy Gen X trap of moaning about over-indulged Gen Y, as its not that straight forward but…. I think there has been a sea change in employee expectation in recent years and employers are still coming to terms with that I suspect.