The Spritual Limits of Career Advancement

گفت كه تو شمع شدى قبله اين جمع شدى

جمع نيم شمع نيم دود پراكنده شدم

He said you have become a candle, the beacon of this group

I am not group, I’m not candle, I’m scattered smoke

كه مراد، مريد مريد خويش ميشود. 

And the desired one would desire her desirer.

Those pursuing traditional jobs are bound by the certain rules of the corporations / societies / customer satisfaction / managing up / managing down / etc.

If I tried to paraphrase what our dear Kabir said last night I’d write it as above. This notion of the reality of the time made me pause and ponder: Careers are governed by the rules of the majority. And majority wants the world a certain way. And majority has proven time and again that their way is not necessarily Devine. Mind you the execution of Socrates, the crusade of Jesus, the martyrdom of Hossein, the World War II, the collapse of 2007.

Careers impose written, and mostly unwritten, contractual terms on you. When to wake up. How to dress. How to talk. What to read. Where to be at certain times of the day, week, month. What to eat. When to eat. With whom to eat. How to talk. What to say. To whom to say what.

Career advancement comes only after certain terms of those people-written/unwritten rules were satisfied in a certain way within a certain time. Hence, career advancement tolls you beyond “work”. It tolls your whole being, your character, your likes and dislikes, your mind occupations, your hourly presence, even your words. It forces you into a mold. It molds you to a certain shape and form that may not necessarily align with your best self.

كه اشتهار خلق بند محكم است

در ره اين از بند آهن كى كم است؟

Being famous resembles a tight rope

In the Path this rope is nothing less than an iron chain

The toll that the career puts on you won’t be all evil and wrong. There are several virtues practiced most definitely and sometimes most painfully at work and the result is growth. Virtues such as respect, patience, promise keeping. These too put a toll on you but to make you better.

I certainly needed to work and be aspired by career advancement in my twenties and even so far in my thirties, to learn. I better learned how to curb my enthusiasm because I worked, how to phrase my words in aspiration to be impeccable with them. I learned patience. I learned acceptance. I practiced respect. I practiced adaptability. And thank the Divine if I have attained morsels of such virtues.

However, I have a feeling that the achievement of such practice may reach a ceiling in such situation. I feel it sometimes already. But not frequent enough. I suspect though that if the frequency of feeling tethered and limited by the laws of career advancement reach a certain level I may need to pivot. I may pivot to stop career advancement, or stop career all together.

Perhaps my desire, to the extent of restlessness, to earn higher degrees stem in this prediction. I aspire to attain my PhD in a less “brainy” topics. Meaning not engineering. But perhaps philosophy, or management, or psychology.

And I pray that when the time comes, when the limit is reached, when the mold became too tight, I realize it.

Yaa Baseer

PS: poems from Masnavi of Molana Rumi

The Writer

He came back and sat down beside me to put down the two cups he brought back with him. “With almond milk” he said and pointed at the cup closer to me with his whole hand. I looked at him and gave him a smile. He glanced at me briefly, his eyes felt warm on me, and then turned forward to look back at the rainbow sky of the setting Sun beneath us.  I crawled my palms to my cup and held it with both hands, collecting its warmth.  I looked down at the cup and its sipping sprout. It was aligned with the logos both on the cup and on the sleeve. I smiled and took a deep breath and raised my head to look at him again.  Coffee in his hand he had gotten up, he was leaning over the railing of the bookstore’s balcony cafe on the 5th floor. I sat back with my cup, watching him. He had worn his brown pullover I always loved the soft material of. Laying on his elbows his whole torso was hanging over the sky looking over the Mediterranean Sea which glowed orange and gold.  His thinning hair, his tanned neck with a maze of soft wrinkles, his coarsening hands and the contentment in his whole body. And his eyes. His eyes sparkled dreamily. He came back to sit down beside me.  Quietly he put his arm around my shoulders and laid his head sideways on mine. I smiled to myself, wondering what the young woman was typing on her tablet, glancing over us oldies every once in a while.

The Problem - Part 3

Japan never stopped baffling me. Never a dull moment.
It was a surprise to all when the presidents of the two investing companies and the board of directors chose me as the Vice President of the business in the US when we became incorporated a year and a half down the road, and the co leader of the organization. The less tactful ones opened their hands: was a woman, none Japanese, and not even 40. How could I become elected as VP they exclaimed.
It was a surprise to me when they assigned a 48 year old Japanese software engineer with no background in our business, no management experience, nor any international experience as the president of the corporation; the co leader beside me.
I asked about this. They told me that it was the Japanese style. That always a Japanese will act as a “window man” while a local leader would the regional affair.
The first sentence he told me when he came into the office the first morning was "call everyone to meet me at 9 AM." He then said to all " bring your ideas to me. I will review them and will let you know if any of them were worthy."
I was astoned. I knew it won't work this way. I pointed out to him that everything was working fine already and that my team would continue reporting to me. Thank you very much though! :)
A haze.
Time would tell.

The Problem - Part 2

It wasn't always unhappy. In fact, at first it was happy. I was the leader. I could see what was needed, envisioned the outcome, planned, and executed.
My top talents all in works: strategic, activator, communication, positivity, and competition. I felt content.
I was challenged by the Japanese culture and as a result I started studying them. I read any article I could find on the topic, a few business books some written by Japanese and some by Americans to get a holistic view, I watched Japanese movies, followed Japanese artists, and read Japanese literature. I started learning the language and as daunting as it felt even the alphabetical characters.
I put timelines for myself and my team and we delivered.
We had challenges in communicating with Japan. So I requested weekly meetings. We conducted regular meetings and I flew to Japan for face to face meetings at least once a quarter but usually more.
 It worked.
We had a talent issue and managing that issue became a huge problem by itself. I learned that my speed in recognizing a talent, or the lack of, was beyond what was tangible to most. I also learned that an organization, even as small as ours, needed it's time to reach the same conclusion. I learned and exercised patience beyond my age.
It worked.

The Problem - Part 1

I am good at my work. 

What I do is build companies from nothing but a vision. 

They hired me to fulfill two tasks: 1) do market research and ensure they could have a viable and sustainable business in the US 2) to build and manage this business in the US

So I did. Both.

I proved to them in less than a quarter that they had a viable business in the US by not only researching the market but also recruiting potential customers for this hypothetical vision. They were astoned themselves!

I also put together the pillars of a medical device business here in the US:

• First Thing First: Quality Management System
• Regulatory Pathway and Strategy
• Collected, analyzed, documented Voice of Customer
• Marketing Requirement Specifications
• Branding and Publuc Relationship Strategy
• Business Plan
• Executional Plan
• Customer Identification, Relationship Initiation and Management
• Strategic Partner Identification, Negotiation, Drafting and Closing Contraxt
• Legal and Compliance Management
• Talent Identification, Team Building, and Management
• Cross Pacific Collaboration

I did these all. The top dozen strategies for a successful multinational medical device business.

I was good at my job. 

I am good at my job. 

The problem: I feel unhappy at work.