When I worked in product development
at a quick service restaurant,
store managers saw two types of employees.
There were the folks
who came in
and did the bare minimum.
They were there merely for the part-time pay
and they never progressed past
burger flipper.
There were also folks
who came in
and gave their all.
They were determined to be
the best damn burger flippers
our company had ever seen.
These driven folks didn’t last long
at the restaurants.
Managers, seeing their potential,
would tell head office about them
and these employees would be stolen,
given better paying jobs,
and put on the career fast track
(one of these ambitious burger flippers
ended up as CEO).
Same job, two very different results,
all due to passion.
Kevin Liles,
founder and C.E.O. of KWL Enterprises,
shares
“I’ve always felt that whatever I did,
I owned it.
I mean, call it arrogance.
Call it passion.
Call it taking the weight of the world.
Call it responsibility.
The point is,
you were not going to outperform me
at something that I felt I owned.
It’s a mentality.
It’s a way of life.
If I’m the intern,
I’m the president of interns.
If I’m a regional manager,
I approach the job like
I’m the president of regional managers.
But that’s every day in anything I do.
I don’t get involved in things halfway.”
If you in a role,
strive to be the best in that role,
even if you don’t want to stay
in that role
long term.
People WILL notice.