It’s not what you’ve done, but what you’re doing now!

By Fiona Boyd |

Have you ever been barraged by someone who is completely sure that you, no matter what your achievements to date, are just some person who is going to willingly submit yourself to their higher wisdom and to just do what they want? To listen to their endless aggrandizing of their abilities and their truly magnificent academic and work history?

I used to get this all the time when I worked as an executive with ABC Radio and for the like of me could not work out why some folks, generally those who were significantly older than myself, were convinced that I was there to listen to their glorious work histories and to then do their bidding. As time went on it didn’t seem to matter that I was in charge of such individuals rather than the other way around. I had one or two who reported to me who just could not let go of their view of their own superiority – that all they’d achieved so far must count for something, mustn’t it?

Having now had a few years since successfully exiting from Arts Hub, I’ve had some time to ponder what I am – is it Arts Hub? Is it the broadcasting and management work I did at ABC Radio, am I the various business consulting projects we’ve successfully run over the years, or is there more to who I am than what I’ve done to date?

And this is what I now know to be true. Yes, from time-to-time I do like to talk a bit about Arts Hub, particularly in the forum of this blog where the audience is free to ‘tune out’ if they wish. I also like to talk about some of the interesting breakthroughs that clients and associates of mine are achieving at the current time. There’s nothing more satisfying to me than sharing some of the highlights of the milestones achieved by people close to me, with others who are on a similar journey and could do with knowing that others have walked a similar path and come through better and wiser.

But I am not what I’ve done to date, my value is what I’m doing now and how all that I’ve done so far can be drawn on to do interesting and hopefully amazing things in the future. I am more than my history!

David and I recently witnessed someone we’re associated with behave in an incredibly dishonourable way and the substandard behaviour was prefaced by the sort of ‘ I’ve been around the block many times and nobody’s smarter, better, greater than me’ talk that gets us somewhat worried. When someone you’re trying to reach agreement on a project with cannot even get past their own story to understand the nature of the project and where both parties sit in relation to it, then there seems to be very little hope of you both working together in a meaningful and mutually beneficial way.

Get beyond your history! Business is about more than what youve done, its about what you doing right now!

Get beyond your history! Business is about more than what you've done, it's about what you're doing right now!

Now some would say that this tendency to ‘over-rate’ one’s history is only owned by those old enough to have a history. I’d argue that is only partially true. Right now online there are various spruikers in the social media space, still yelling from the rafters about how they are ‘experts’ in this field – and of course, that you must all get involved and do as they tell you, otherwise you and your business are in danger of missing the boat, and you know what that means!! But how can they be ‘experts’? Social media is a pretty new phenomenon and as far as I’m concerned the people out there doing it and using it and trying it, are early movers, not ‘experts’. In time and as current social networks and yet-to-be-invented social networks and media consolidate in society’s consciousness and become a bona fide way that we all communicate then I’m sure some true ‘experts’ will emerge from the crowd. However, there’s not many that I’d trust for an opinion at the present time and that’s good – it means this is a space where we should be experimenting, trying things out and working out what is our authentic way to be and to talk in this new world of social media.

Returning to the notion that you are not your history. Maybe it’s worth thinking about what it is that you’re doing right now and valuing what is in there that is new and challenges you to learn more, see things in new ways, develop new understandings and processes and importantly, to implement them in your business or life. If you just repeat the exact steps that led to your past successes, you’re quickly going to find out that the world around you has changed and grown past the pathways that led you to achieve that success.

It’s a truism – but there was a saying that we bandied around in our management consulting days pre – Arts Hub, which was ‘you’re only as good as your next gig’. Meaning that you’ve got to do excellent work in the present and continue to do excellent work for each and every new client – that resting on one’s laurels and selling ourselves only based on our past successes was not an option for us.

There is a solid reason for this – you might have processes and systems in your consultancy or business that enable you to follow a bit of a template with most gigs, but the reality is that each new project has some intriguing issues that need to be solved anew. New solutions need to be found and therefore you need to keep your mind open to new ways of looking at the issues, and new possibilities of resolution.

That’s not to say that in solving these new issues in elegant and efficient ways that you haven’t created new intellectual property that can’t be refined and taken to a wider market. But that is a whole other area of mine – if your client wants you to create new intellectual property in my view – you should get some ongoing benefit of the work you’ve just done for them. Creative problem-solving in my opinion has a value that goes way beyond hourly rate.

Back to the man who couldn’t get past his own story and need to be dominant with us recently to another way of doing things. Just a few nights ago, David and I had a friendly dinner at home with a relatively new business associate, who I’m happy to say is a very hard-working Gen Y and who is knowledgeable in his area, but is also wonderfully collaborative in approach. I reflected after our meeting at how civilized it was that we all shared a bit of recent history and observation with each other, however there was no competing for airtime (or willy-waving as I call it – also the behaviour of the The Big Swinging Dick as characterized by Michael Lewis in Liar’s Poker), everyone got to have a say, and more importantly talking about the business issues we needed to was just so easy. Tasks were delineated and distributed. Agreement made on when they should be done by, and hey! off we go. I feel totally confident that this business relationship will be civil, profitable, exciting and fun! I hope the journey goes on for some time.

By contrast, the dominant man I mentioned earlier concerns me greatly as to whether he will ever get past his own love of his own history to be able to lead projects meaningful enough for other creative parties to get involved with.

So, if you’re feeling a bit stuck and find yourself constantly talking about your past successes, maybe it’s time to think about what exactly were the outlook and behaviours you engaged in at the time. It’s likely true that it was ‘not what you did but the way that you did it’ that got results last time – and that open outlook and way of going about things is going to help you find the right answers this time round too!

And remember, you are way more than your history!

Photo: Flickr bjornmeansbear

Fiona Boyd and David Eedle wrote Niche Content Millionaire, the story of the startup, growth and sale of Arts Hub in part so that they could get past their own history and get on with new things. They are currently gestating a new entrepreneurial business that will launch in beta in March 2010.

Niche Content Millionaire is a downloadable eBook that tells you the true story how we made millions from subscription content and membership websites.

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