Truly I am, and all though I always suspected this was the case, once I launched my own start up – I discovered this to be the uncompromising truth.
I have, we all have had, some “delightful” managers in our careers. For example in the early days I had a two level up boss, Frank, we were driving to a customer meeting, he was following me. And about 2 miles out – he rear ended my company car with his rental. He leaps out and starts screaming – about how this is my fault, etc etc. I will never forget that – here I was 23 and this 30 years my senior guy from the home office was in a rage – blood vessels popping etc.. I was speechless. Turns out this was like his 20th accident and the company was pulling his driving privileges anyway .. but at the time, standing on the side of an LA road – I was confronted with the prospect of early career failure, or at least I thought I was.
Spin this forward, a few years, and there I am via multiple managers, most good, some not so much, and their managers and CEO’s etc, well you get the idea. Some amazing ones, some just great people, and everybody – every single manager / co-worker, parallel manager, all of them – I learned every single time regardless, at every step along the way.
Then, it became my turn. My perception shifted again. Now learning is at my own expense, time is not my friend or foe – it simply ticks besides me at 5:30am when I fire up the computer and still reminds me of a building list of tasks at 9:00pm at night. The ticking never stops and all though I sleep well enough, as my own boss I am constantly asking myself, did I do enough today? Will I do better tomorrow?