Corporate failure – ashy2classy.com
My mother tells me that even as a baby, I would categorically refuse to eat if the food was not given to me a certain way. In school, I was the kid who cried when I got less than a perfect grade. I would rip up my calligraphy homework sheet if one of the letters had a slight imperfection. Today, I catch myself telling my own daughter that her homework must be perfect. I am a perfectionist in remission in a world where perfection is more a liability than an asset, and boy has it cost me…and paid off too…
Fast forward a few decades, and as I came to learn in the corporate world, outstanding grades and perfectionist expectations do not make the cut. Actually, they set you back quite a bit…In the fast-paced world of corporations, the ins and outs of career success are not elaborate dissertations on the human condition, or elevated, philosophical hopes of super-human achievement. In other words, between the Bentley and the Chevy, and despite all its glamorized outward appearance, the corporate world is really more the Chevy than the Bentley…And for the perfectionist at heart, it spells nothing else but…failure, good, grand, inspiring FAILURE! And that may just be the best thing that can happen to us…
I believe everyone should experience the corporate world, scramble in the urgency of business, build the Legos of professional relationships, understand how at the end of the day, the bottom line matters, all the while learning to climb an elusive corporate ladder on your hands and knees. And most importantly, learn to fail in a world where you are forgotten as soon as your reputation is tarnished, and replaced when you are no longer of any use, like…the real world…
Corporate failure will disappoint you as a perfectionist, ideals-filled, morally conscious professional. Yet it will build you up, train you hard, and strengthen every intellectual and moral muscle you ever thought you had. There’s a reason why it’s called the corporate jungle, and there’s a reason why for many it has been one of the most important rites of passage in their lives and careers.
It is the best antidote for the debilitating side of Perfection, one of the harshest and strongest remedies for anyone wanting to learn what success in the real world is like. No wonder it’s called the corporate jungle…
So you over there, yes you the Perfectionist with the Ivy league degree, the insanely high IQ and high morals and standards, you are going to fail…and you are going to get up, dust yourself off, learn to ride that Chevy hard and strong, until it’s time to get behind the Bentley’s wheel…Ready?
The Corporate Sister.
