3 Timeless Workplace Principles I Wished A Mentor Imparted Me at 25
Wisdom comes with age. It tells us what to accept and reject.
Career advice is splashed all over the internet.
And we never have enough of it. Of course, it depends on what we seek.
If you want to climb higher faster — Seek advice from the ambitious
Want to build something on the side after your working hours? Read articles from those who are actively doing so.
And that brings me to the article headline. It prompts 2 questions.
- Is there any timeless, classic advice we can embrace for the workplace this decade?
- Is there any timeless, classic, tweakable advice we can use if we hustle on the side?
I think there is.
To elaborate further, I turn to Bruce Lee.
Bruce Lee — The Practitioner of Ultimate Practicality
No martial artist has influenced generations of people more than he did.
The martial artists. Those who are not.
He may have passed on, but his legacy endured. Of course, you may think of Jeet Kun Do when I say this. Nope.
I refer to the philosophy he wrapped his life in.
This quote captures the snapshot of his thinking.
Absorb what is useful, reject what is useless, add what is essentially your own.
I am not a martial artist. I cannot appreciate how this line of thinking applies to offense and defense.
But I understand why this way of thinking is powerful and practical. It taught me to be self-aware.
Today, it taught me to be faithfully me.
Therefore, I will extend his philosophy to frame the 3 timeless workplace principles I believe will withstand the test of time.
This is my anchor idea.
Timeless Principles > Disparate Advice
Timeless Workplace Principle 1: Work to Learn
Reject This: Work for money Accept This: Work to learn new skill sets
I reject money as the primary reason for employment.
The reason is simple. It is not timeless.
Look around us.
Many and more people are leaving the workforce to pursue their own thing. Even my friend’s son (at 15) is pursuing an online writing course. He aims to become a professional blogger earning big bucks before graduation.
Money can come from multiple sources. Employment is (just) one of them.
Don’t work for the money.
Instead, work to acquire skill sets. There are invaluable skill sets within employment that help us become better entrepreneurs, hustlers, online writers, and creators.
Take, for instance, the following.
- Working with people from all walks of life
- Managing expectations from clients
- Pitching to a big group of people
- Managing a large-scale project
- Dealing with retrenchment
You might be surprised by the list. Are these skill sets?
Yes, they are.
Soft skills, in an unconventional manner, complement what we do at work and on the side. And such skill sets are 100% transferrable.
Learning to deal with cheapskate clients during our day job helps us deal with cheapskate clients in our 1-Man consulting practice.
So, yes.
Work to learn.
We grow holistically.
Timeless Workplace Principle 2: Identify People to Learn from and Avoid at All Times
Reject This: Learn from every and anyone better than you Accept This: Learn from people you adore and accept you for who you are
I used to think I must learn from masters of their craft.
This is a no-brainer piece of advice I constantly read from Forbes, Harvard Business Review, and other sources. It makes logical sense.
Until it doesn’t.
Here’s why.
We cannot work with everyone. There are people we reject holistically. It can be their personal values or way of thinking. Maybe you find them obnoxious.
No matter how good they are at their craft — I say avoid them.
You will suffer deep inside you if you choose to hang around them.
I learned this the hard way last year.
I had great respect for my marketing director. But he carries himself as if he is a super senior director.
He talks a lot, does nothing, and expects anyone else to do the work. I almost always have to do something when we do speak.
I don’t belong to the marketing team, by the way.
I learned to reject him completely. I declined all his meetings. No regrets.
With time, I learned to reject those who throw their rank wherever they go. I hang around with those who think alike.
It works for me.
And so, I tweaked my thinking.
I work with those who carry themselves with humility and share their ideas freely. I reciprocate in the same way.
And I port over this line of thinking to my online writing.
I write genres that align with my line of thinking. As much as I would like to write about self-improvement, I am much better off writing about business.
It comes naturally to me.
And.
I don’t want to be another person telling my readers what they should do for improvement.
Timeless Workplace Principle 3: Carry These 3 Important Words to Our Workplace
Reject This: Okay, noted, will do Accept This: Yes, no, because
I like to get things done.
Productivity and efficiency come naturally to me. I feel happy when I check off items from my to-do list.
But it gets me taken advantage of.
Colleagues would dump work that is complex and time-consuming for me to handle. Bosses treat me as the corporate work black hole. I got tired.
And so, I learned to question.
- I will only say yes to a task if it makes sense to me
- I say no if it is not directed to my workplace aspirations
- I ask why to understand the purpose of that task assigned
This ensures I work on meaningful tasks.
And this is 100% transferable to our hustles. Avoid blindly taking on assignments as a freelancer. Choose those you genuinely want to work on.
It makes you happy.
You cannot explain it.
You just know it.
Parting Keynotes
Age is our best teacher.
No matter how mature we are today, we will appear naïve when we look back 10 years later. Life works this way.
And because of that, I learned to embrace timeless workplace principles by accepting and rejecting advice littered all over the internet. Or from others.
This is my list.
- Reject This: Work for money
- Accept This: Work to learn new skill sets
- Reject This: Learn from every and anyone better than you
- Accept This: Learn from people you adore and accept you for who you are
- Reject This: Okay, noted, will do
- Accept This: Yes, no, because
What about you?
What are your timeless workplace principles?
As a content contributor, I write my observations from daily life and my business exposure. Because our life experience is the bedrock of our unique perspectives.
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