Walking Billboard

I definitely didn’t meet my new year’s resolution to blog 2x per week during August & September, but I’m ok with that.  But now that Ramadan is over and our tour back home is complete, I’m going to try to re-implement it.

We were back in the USA for almost 3 weeks which was AMAZING!  I knew I needed it, but I really don’t think I knew how much until we had gotten there.  I think it was a good length of time—if it had been only 2 weeks, I think I would have dreaded coming back, but by the end of week three I think we were rejuvenated, refreshed, and ready to come back and give it another go.  I’m not going to lie and say that we just couldn’t wait to be back in the land of the dish-dashes and abayas, but it’s kind of hard to want to be anywhere else when you’re just relaxing, not working, and spending time with friends and family.  But enough about the trip…there will be plenty of posts dedicated to that in the coming weeks :)

I had almost forgotten how beautiful the US is!  We left this, to come back to...(below)

Back to the land of burkas, dual-lingual signage, concrete, and hazy skies.  And yes, those are terry-cloth "burkinis" (burka bathing suit) that women over here wear (the ad is for a Dubai waterpark)

When we exited the airport in Abu Dhabi, an interesting feeling came over me.  The smell and “mild” heat/humidity.  It was similar to what it was like a year before when I first arrived, but at the same time it was very different.  This time it was familiar.  The UAE will never be “home” like the US is, but it has definitely become more of a familiar, home-like feel.  With that said, the first 3 – 5 days back were ROUGH!  I think it mainly had to do with the fact that we were totally jet-lagged and had to work the next day.  I held up “ok” at work that Wed & Thurs (although I would take naps around 5pm), but Friday morning I just could not get up.  I was literally in bed from 10pm to 2pm—14 hours!  I tried to get up at one point and eat breakfast, but all I could think about was getting back in bed.  I guess my body really needed some sleep.

Work was pretty rough that first week or so too.  I think a big part of it was the jet lag which made me more cranky than I was aware of.  And it doesn’t help that we’re just in a weird phase at work where things are slow, yet  stuff still has to be done ASAP, yet you can’t really do anything because you’re waiting on decisions/direction/etc. in order to do those “ASAP” things.  Anyways, I will admit that I didn’t have the best attitude about it.  Then one night last week I was listening to one of the Dave Ramsey podcasts, and the last caller had a question about motivation at work.  The response Dave gave really convicted me/gave me the pep talk I needed.  Anyways, I thought I’d share the “transcript” with you in case any of you are in a similar situation and could use some encouragement.

Here’s the deal, always remember that no matter what’s happening, no matter how bad [your boss] is treating you, you always work while you’re at work, and you always smile, and you always give it every ounce of energy you’ve got. Because your next job, your next career, your next opportunity will come from someone you are interacting with there. A vendor, a customer, a competitor, somebody that drove by and just saw you. You will be amazed. People forget that. They think that somehow you’re cheating the guy because he’s a jerk so you let off the gas—no baby, pedal to the metal, accelerator through the floorboard, wide open, smile on your face, wind in your hair, you kick it! Because someone is watching, and if [your boss] won’t pay you, someone else will. You are a walking billboard, for you. You’re not damaging him if you let off the accelerator, you’re damaging your brand. Don’t let you foot off the accelerator because of someone else’s activity—no, no, no.

So even if your boss is not motivating you, by doing the right things—by telling the truth, by rewarding you with money, by being a boss not a leader. It’s not about him, it’s about you. Rabbi Lapin talks about this in his book Thou Shall Prosper, he says that one of the reasons Jewish people prosper is that they understand that they’re all self-employed. And when you’re always self-employed you may only have one customer—that means you work for someone else. If you have a job, you’re a self-employed person with only one customer. So, how are you going to treat that customer? Well, if the customer is unreasonable I’ll have to go get another customer—meaning I’m not going to sit there being taken advantage of, but I’m not going to let the way the customer acts dictate my level of service. I may have to fire the customer and go get me another customer, or two, or three (meaning doing business for yourself literally). But I am not going to fall into this thing of ‘the place I work is a bunch of jerks and so I’m going to prove that by me being a jerk’—how infantile. And yet that’s the way most people live. And that’s why most people don’t succeed. It’s because they think backwards about these things. You work for you, baby. You are your brand. Put your pedal to the metal. Accelerator through the floorboard. Get over in the passing lane. Weave in and out of traffic. You’ve got places to go. Let’s go. Don’t let up. Your career for the next 20 years may walk through the door as the next customer, the next interaction you have with a vendor. Do weird stuff. Be involved in unusual levels of service & activity. Wes Brown says “serve at levels that you’re not being paid for, and eventually you’ll get paid for it”—if this guy won’t pay you, his competitor will. Be so good that you’re what Seth Godin calls a “lynchpin.”

Think different. Be a little weird. Be happy—that alone will set you apart.

I would say that 90% of the time I am like this, but that hasn’t been the case as much in the past 3 – 4 months.  I think that being a westerner, working in an arabic culture is difficult.  Then you compound that with the additional complications of working in this very status-oriented country where “wasta” (arabic for influence/”knowing the right people”) is very important.  On top of that, the place I work has quite a few of it’s own characters and culture which can easily bring you down.  I remember when I first got out here how many times people at work mentioned how much I smiled and how nice it was to have some fresh spirit in the group.  I didn’t feel like I smiled any more than normal, but the more I became aware of my surroundings the more I realized how unhappy people are—and it started to rub off.  But now I feel like I’ve been nudged in the right direction and I’m feeling much more motivated.  I also really believe in the power of how smiling, even when you don’t feel like it, can positively change your attitude.  I’m sure it won’t all be daisies and roses from now on, but hopefully I’ll continue to move in the right direction.