New catchphrase slash work/life mantra
I’m looking for the 1:1 between effort-in and results-out.
Came up with this a few minutes ago when emailing a friend. She had asked me about long-term and short-term career goals for myself and this analogy popped into my head with regard to my work or perhaps my ‘life’s work’ and how does my contribution matter. Honestly ever since I joined HaveMyShift on the side, I’ve had an axe to grind with traditional jobs such as my dayjob where I can spend a large amount of effort on something only to have the benefit of that effort diluted by the corporate need to do so.
Case in point, if I work for a client and deliver $x/hr in value they are willing to pay for me to do so, then I only take home maybe .25% of $x ($x is a pretty big number). Right off the bat, that a 4:1 ratio, not great. Don’t get me wrong, my takehome is plenty satisfactory, but it frustrates me that the remaining 3 goes to pay for things like company embroidered laptop bags, sponsorship of some pro golfer, some partner’s vacation home, or that guy in the mailroom that doesn’t wash his hands.
In my personal life, I’ve got a beautiful wife and two incredible kids. Years back I swore to leave consulting because travelling all of the time would mess with my ratios in terms of how good a father and husband I am. Fortunately I’ve been able to keep it up without having to travel and simultaneously increase my ratio by leading the Innovation Lab. But still…
