"Un bon croquis vaut mieux qu'un long discours,"or "A good sketch is better than a long speech".
Some years ago I was entering into a entrepreneurial partnership with a person on the other side of the country. We knew each other fairly well, but needed to give this professional relationship a better chance of survival. He suggested we select a picture that best described our self-image as a business person. He saw himself as a fire fighter. His passion was stepping into the chaos of a company on fire (meaning a company going down in flames, or so hot it would implode of its own heat)and putting its house in order, and then leaving. Below is part of my response to him, plus some additional information and pictorial thoughts that I have added to this exercise since then. I have also used this as a reality check, running it by trusted friends, family and associates. Someone asked me this very question the other day, so I thought i would post some of this info--not so much to know me, but to highlight the value of the exercise.
I suppose if I had to use a one-word description of myself, my passion, it would be “builder.” I love building companies or any organization—maturation of processes, culture, climate, finding potential, creating catalytic mechanisms that avoid having to call firefighters... I want people to go to work excited and go home fulfilled—armed and ready to be a better person in all their stewardships. I am goal oriented, but reaching the goal is only part of the fun. It is like the Nietzsche thought: Not every end is a goal. The end of a melody is not its goal, but nonetheless, if the melody had not reached its end it would not have reached its goal... The following box I clipped from something I had the executive staff in a previous organization accomplish. We did one of those “personality tests”—this one from the book, Now Discover Your Strengths which provided the one word descriptives. We then described ourselves in a paragraph that we bounced off the group for a reality check.
Mike:
Achiever
Intellection
Learner
Input
Belief
I don’t like surprises, but I love a good risky adventure. I don’t like to rock the boat, but I do like to push for understanding—which can rock the boat sometimes. I need to improve my empathy, but I love diversity. I like to learn new skills and become a master at things, but the process is as important as the result. From that growth new vistas are created, new ideas are incubated, questions arise, introspection goes deeper. That intellectual introspection is checked by my values, ethics, and especially spiritual guidance. That guidance demands that I find work that meshes with my values. My actions must be meaningful and make a difference. I need to live out my values or find the job where I can. My actions require new research, study, writing, understanding and clarity; so I read, collect input and seek diversity. From that new input I learn and grow and the cycle continues for another turn. Sometimes I write and seek input too much from others. I think and do and then adjust. I can bend pretty far, but then I am decisive—sometimes to a fault.
