It's not personal, it's business. Is it?

One of my colleagues got fired yesterday. He climbed the corporate ladder from the lowest position to the director level. He was competent.  He had a big picture. The best business advice I ever got was from him. The only »drawback« was his openness. He was the one that stood up and told the truth even when nobody else did. He cared. He wanted to have things done, the right way, the good way.  

We got a new CMO two months ago and he didn't like his openness, so he fired him. I am sure, it was not personal for him, but was that good for the business? This made me remember one of the biggest business lessons I got at the beginning of my career.

In my twenties I had a coworker that I really connected to. She was a little older then I, more experienced and we became good friends, or at least I thought so. When I was to cover for her during her longer vacation, I took over bigger task that arrived two days before her departure. I thought if I will have to take it over the next day anyway, why not do it right now and not burden colleague with it just before leaving.  I couldn't be more wrong. She felt I was trying to take over her position and she has hardly spoken to me afterwards.  I was shocked, tried to correct this, although I never understood, what was so wrong I did. It was not personal, it is business she said.

I have never forgot this lesson and I have lived personal life completely separated from my business life. But guess what, that was not ok as well.

By trying so hard not to make business personal, I did something else too. I didn't really deeply care about it. I did not allow myself to. It was just a job. A paycheck. I made it sure that passion would not be part of this equation.  Subconsciously I believed that if I would enjoy the business that would be wrong. And all these years I was surprised, I was never really happy at my job and I couldn't progress from the position I had. I was always doing a good job, but that was it. I was stuck and unhappy. Only now I can see that. People felt there was something missing. It was my passion, possibility to inspire others.

This was huge realization for me. It actually hit me while I was writing this post. 

It is not enough to do job well to be really successful in it. If I want to be more than just a good mediocre, I have to put me in it. It needs to fire up my passions. It needs to fulfill me.  

It needs to be personal. 

It is actually quite funny, that I set down decided to write a post about my colleague who got fired for being passionate about his job and I ended up demystifying one of my core beliefs. I am just beginning to understand now, how powerful writing down your thoughts can be. I challenge you to try it and see what happens.