A Quest For Balanced Life

When Grace graduated from school, she had a rough idea what she wanted to do. The goal was to learn and gain knowledge in the first few years on the job. She did that. First couple of years the learning process was quite slow, but she was definitely learning fundamentals on the real job. Fundamentals in school were theoretical, fundamentals on the job were practical, and she definitely was fulfilling her practical knowledge. Then what. Well, then Grace moved on, she was now ready for a second step. A step where she could apply her knowledge and solve problems. Time came and she was looking for a new job. Decisions were tough to make. Everyone was offering her mountains of gold - like brand new desk, a new computer, complete working system in place and job that required very little challenge. The challenge was just get things rolling, get things done, and ensure you follow the system. Yes follow the system already in place. In this case there is no room for change. Was this what Grace wanted in her next career step? No, that wasn't it.

Grace needed something more challenging and her wish came true. She arrived at the place where everything was just right, and at first she thought there is no challenge here, but that thought was based on her visual observations only. However, something made her listen deeply - the boss wasn't happy. As she listened and listened, she started to see a true picture - the business was in trouble, and things needed to be fixed. There were many other candidates for this job, Grace needed to win this and how? Well, the right answer was - 'I don't want to work in the place where everything is perfect. I want to work in the place where I can get hold of the broom and start cleaning and creating a system that is right for all' - Grace got the job. Her knowledge now was growing along the exponential curve. Just to clarify, she was a dry sponge before, and at the second step she was now the wet sponge, absorbing much more knowledge than before. She worked for couple years in this second step or on her second path, but unfortunately boss's impatience to have things done, and fake appreciation and dishonesty to all employees eventually brought him to bankruptcy. Grace was long gone before his downfall.

Before Grace had challenging job she took pre-early second step, she went to work for herself. Grace failed because she was too aggressive, naive and she just did not have enough knowledge to recognize that it wasn't that easy, and it would have not been if she knew what she was doing. However, the paths in life are not that obvious sometimes, and because someone else walked that path, it may not be a path for you.

When Grace left the second step job, now she was ready for the third step. By some unknown reason her own business made a perfect sense now. She took different approach. She entered the abyss of unknown with her true confidence, with what she really knew and not with what she pretended to know. The honesty, dedication and now her skill got Grace successful. So how Grace measures her success. In business world usually success is measured by how much money you make. However, she measures her success based on that too, because you need to make money to survive - yes she makes enough to have her business going every year, but not any more when she was working for someone else. However, Grace's true measure of success is happiness defined by balance between a work and personal life.

The moral of the story is, when you are new to the working world, you must think of your path carefully. You must also know that the path you chose may not be always the path you end up with. You must also realize that your work path will take most of your life on the beginning but as you get established you should realize that there is also personal path that you can run in parallel. Lastly, you must also know, that any path you choose may not be an easy path, but it is up to you to stay strong and honest with yourself to make the right life decisions.

[FICTION BASED ON TRUE STORY]