Always implicit and even more basic, however, is a third factor: Values.
Every one of us has a value system, but few of us ever independently adopt our own or articulate what we adopt. Most people simply adopt a typically American value system that was born of the pioneer spirit and magnified in the Depression. This value system places the pursuit of security (wealth?) above everything.
It's passed along from parent to child, from teacher to student, and from boss to employee.
Values, as I use the word here, are an overriding set of guiding principles that help us determine what appropriate behavior is. From these personal values, we can derive our career values. As with needs and talents, if our career values don't mesh with our job, we're likely to be unhappy.
Whether we are conscious of them or not, of course, we have always had a set of personal values. In general, we aren't conscious of those values unless confronted with situations that challenge them.
And while most Americans find it easy to stand up for their values in personal life, most will swallow their personal values when they're in conflict with the unethical stance of an employer because of the "security-above-all-else" ethic which is so pervasive in our society.
It doesn't have to be that way. For people who are truly in charge of their careers, it isn't.
To achieve that kind of self-sufficiency, we must first be conscious of what our values are. That doesn't mean we have to question them, only that we be conscious of them.
Then we must ask whether they're really ours, or whether they're someone else's. Our conscious values are likely to be at least partially those of our parents and teachers.
Here's a simple exercise you can try:
Make a list of some of the things you've done that really made you proud, both in the doing and in the accomplishment. The list can be as long as you like. Examine each item and cross out those that made you proud primarily because they pleased your parents, your teachers or your bosses, rather than because they pleased you.
Next, cross out the remaining items that gave you a sense of accomplishment rather than a sense of pride. There's a key difference here and I'm not sure that I can adequately describe it, but let me try:
You may recall a news story a few years ago about the college student who, from publicly available documents, designed and assembled an atomic bomb. That was quite an achievement and if it were me, I would feel an intense sense of accomplishment. I don't know that I'd be very proud of what I had produced, though.
What remains on your list will be those items that genuinely made you proud. Examine each one carefully for the underlying values that gave you that sense of pride, and list them separately. Those values might include, for example, being a benefit to society, lending support to individuals, doing high-quality work, maintaining your ethical posture in spite of pressure ... and so on. When the list is complete, you'll then have some components of your fundamental value system.
You'll also probably find that you place a relatively low value on monetary wealth. More often than not, people simply use money as a means of justifying doing things that conflict with their real values. If you are doing what you can take pride in and have reasonable income for the present which provides reasonably for the future, then money takes on decreasing importance.
Of course, it's up to you to apply your values to your career by examining how a company treats its people, the sales tactics it uses, the work environment it creates, the products it makes, and a host of other issues. This might well create an entirely new vision of what you want out of your job and career.
If you're a business owner or manager, you can think in terms of creating a set of corporate values, a step that most companies never bother to take. After all, values are a human quality and corporations are by definition nonhuman. But identifying values can help a company formulate its goals and develop a better sense of what is expected from everyone who deals with or works for that company
Your values can be a blend of societal, religious and parental values, but above all, they must be yours. Just as you cannot have a meaningful life without a value system, neither can you have a meaningful career without one.
