I was under the impression that career = skill + passion + luck (or as Malcolm Gladwell likes to call it, planned happenstance.)

But I recently realized that I left an important part of the equation out. It has to do with how I view success — what gives me a sense of accomplishment. The thirst for accomplishment can someone overcome their limits.

Society dictates that success equals having a certain level of material wealth, power and authority. While it may be true for some people, (and while it would be nice for me to have that too,) these things aren’t going to truly make me feel accomplished. I can’t help but think, “so what?” and “what comes after this?”.

Deep down inside me, I’ve always known answer but have refused to admit to it because I think my definition of success is something society would probably categorize as childish.

So, the other week, I bought this career astrological report. And there it was — my definition of success, the one I spent my whole life running away from, on the first line.

Success, for you, means making a definite mark on the world.

It even goes on to say what I couldn’t articulate:

It is not material gain which motivates this deep ambition, nor simple vanity or desire for superficial status. It is a deep impulse to define yourself through your ability to make some kind of real and valuable change in the outer world through the exercise of your talents and abilities. Don’t try to hide from this impulse because you think it is “selfish”, or avoid its call because you are afraid of failure. You might be materially advantaged in a well-paying job, but you will not feel your life has purpose or meaning unless you know you have the power to make some small change in the world into which you were born.

(Let’s leave the credibility of astrology for another discussion.)

Childish as it is, I’m not impractical. I do realize that this is not something that I can accomplish overnight. In fact, I’m still very far from this.

But by publicly admitting it, I’m now one step closer to my calling — whatever it may be.

So, what does success mean to you?

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Great advice but the problem plaguing me, and perhaps some of my Gen-Y peers, is that we don’t know what the hell we want to do.

Of course, some may ask do you really need to like something to do it well? My answer is no. All it takes is a little bit of initiative and some benchmark analysis a la Google to do something well.

But ‘well’ is not good enough for me. All ‘well’ is doing is pushing the innovation bar a little bit higher — it’ll never bring about great change (by the way, when I say change, I always mean for the better).

To effect great change, you need to push past your 100% and do whatever it takes to make it happen. And the first pre-requisite is to truly care about your cause.

So it’s become incredibly frustrating to not know what I want to do with my career. I can’t help thinking that I’m being left behind in the race of becoming successful. While others are investing all their resources – emotional, financial and time – into something they really believe in, I’m here wasting much of my youth and abilities into seeking what I should be believing in.

But all’s not lost. I have a better inkling of what I want to do now that I’m two years into my first real job.

I love people. I love change. I am learning how to manage people and change — it’s challenging but I’m enjoying every part of it. These passions are still too broad to narrow down into a career path but at least I have a starting point now. And the great thing is that both people and change management can be learned and applied to any role in any field until I am ready to dedicate my life to something(s).

What do you think? Do you have a passion or cause you work would dedicate your life to? If you know me personally, what can you see me do?

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• want work life balance and a good pay
• can’t handle criticism – even constructive ones
• are flaky and disloyal to the company
• want to be CEO tomorrow
• have an overblown sense of entitlement

As a Gen Y, I have to admit that while some of these comments are quite accurate (especially the bit on entitlement), others somewhat suffer from over generalization. Sure, I welcome a better pay and a fast career advancement — sooner than later too. But I don’t expect it to be handed to me just for showing up on time. Promotions are always based on relative judgments. Compared to my older colleagues, I have one glaring disadvantage; I lack experience. So my way up is to take every opportunity to learn, volunteer for more challenging work, gain that experience as much and as quickly as possible…in hopes that I can do what older people can — but learned in a much shorter time and done in a much better fashion. And if that means I have to sleep in the office, so be it. I’m not naive enough to expect the big bucks, while I go home at 5pm everyday.

For every workaholic like me, I know someone who’s perfectly satisfied with his pay — as long as he gets to go home at 6 on the dot. In every generation, there will always people who live to work and people who work to live. So these career bloggers and columnists could really do us a service by not lumping our demands together because there are differences in opinion and even generational gaps amongst Gen Ys.

With that said, I’ve noticed a worrying trend amongst my peers. Many just don’t stay long enough in their jobs. And I don’t think this incessant job hopping is a good idea. It’s no secret that the corporate world demands some level of expertise. This job hopping is a sure fire way not to achieve that.

Personally, I’ve been fortunate enough to land on a job in a company with people I’m happy to work with and work for. I’m approaching 2 years and I still learn something new daily. It doesn’t have to be a big lesson like managing a multi-million dollar project. Most of the time, what I learn are small, seemingly insignificant things like saying the right things at the right time to give your team the moral support to do their jobs better. It is these small things that often turn a failing project on the road to success.

And sure, there are times when shit happens. If it doesn’t happen, I’m pretty sure it’ll find you soon enough. Shit isn’t a bad thing; it’s an opportunity to challenge you, to take you to the next level. It’s coming up with innovative ways to overcome this shit that’s going to gain you the experience you desperately need.

So I guess what I’m saying is that if you’re a Gen Y and you’re thinking about quitting, I’d like you to re-evaluate your reasons — especially if your reasons are along the lines of “I can’t take this shit anymore.”

Do share your views in the comments!

• If you’re Gen Y, what do you think? Do you agree with these career sites? Are there any common traits you’ve noticed about us?
• If you’re a manager of Gen Ys, what do you think of us? Do share because it’s a good opportunity to learn how we’re being perceived.
• And please, no personal attacks, no naming people. Thanks!

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I’m neither the Harvard Business Review nor an experienced people manager but just thought I’d share 5 things I’ve learned about people management:

#1: Great managers assume responsibility

Not-so-great managers are quick to assign blame. Being under constant pressure to make sure nothing goes wrong, I can understand this tendency to point fingers and pass the buck. While it makes quickly lightens the load off your shoulders, it also dampens customer experience and damages teamwork.

Your customers will appreciate when you go that extra mile, even if you fail to deliver. But more importantly, taking on extra responsibility fosters teamwork since your team will stop weighing and comparing their responsibilities precisely because you’ve stopped counting your responsibilities. This is Cialdini’s reciprocation principle at its finest. When you’re willing to take one for the team or just help them out, others will feel compelled to help you too.

But of course, the reverse is also true. When you count pennies with the team, they’ll count pennies with you too.

#2: Great managers listen

Perhaps the speed the world revolves now with Twitter and other ADD-inducing technologies has made it more difficult to attentively listen to people but great managers don’t rush to get their word in. They listen. They acknowledge. And then speak and/or act.

Appreciate what others have to say, no matter how different or perhaps, inferior they may seem to you. Innovative ideas could spring out from conversations with anyone. Two minds are better than one even if you think they only have an IQ of 50.

IQ of 50 + your IQ of 150 = 200. Enough said.

#3: Great managers are courteous

Just because you are in a superior position, doesn’t mean you get the privilege to talk down to someone. It not only makes you look crude, but also destroys team morale. And when your team morale is low, your customers sure ain’t gonna get great service. Creating a lose-lose vicious cycle just because you think you’re better than others just isn’t worth it.

#4: Great managers plan ahead

This may not be so obvious in the office but it sure is when it comes to events. Shit happens. If it does not happen, it will eventually find you and make itself happen. No matter how quiet or peaceful the status quo seems, you have to be prepared to deal with all kinds of potential shit that may be hurled in your general direction.

So don’t be complacent and plan ahead. Of course, foresight isn’t an easy skill to develop and is probably honed with experience but it never hurts to try anyway.

By the way, I appeased a very angry customer by planning ahead. Won’t go into details but this makes a good topic for conversation should we go for coffee.

#5: Great managers know themselves

This is the most important lesson I’ve learned at APEC. I have talents. I have flaws. I also have predictable behaviors to certain circumstances. As a manager, I need first be able to manage myself to adapt to all kinds of situations and all kinds of people, so I could effectively manage other people. This means I need to have some level of self-awareness and self-understanding.

My interest in personality psychology has helped a great deal in learning more about myself. One of my favorite personality tests is the MBTI. Although I don’t think the MBTI is the definitive answer to self-understanding, I find that it’s a good gauge of my natural tendencies. By the way, my MBTI type is ENTJ; being an ENTJ means that:

• Extraverted: I’m easy to talk to but I tend to speak before I think.
• iNtuitive: I easily see the big picture and patterns in theories but I tend to overlook details.
• Thinking: I make my decisions by being impartial, rational and logical but I tend to disregard people’s emotional needs.
• Judging: I like to organize and plan ahead but tend to panic when I have to think on the spot

To become a better managers, people need to capitalize on their strengths and overcome their negative tendencies. Great people managers should be able to find that sweet spot between their natural personalities and the mirror image of their personalities.

And for me, that means I need to become a little more ISFP-esque:

• Introverted: Listen, acknowledge and think before I shoot my mouth
• Sensing: Pay to attention to minor details
• Feeling: Take other peoples’ feelings into consideration.
• Perceiving: Allow myself room to sometimes be spontaneous.

If you have no clue what this mirror personality bit is all about, you can read up on the four dichotomies of the MBTI here.

I’m no CEO or psychologist so I doubt my observations and judgment are 100% correct. But at 23 years old and 9 days of people management immersion, this is what I think great people managers should be like.

As always, I’m sure time and experience will change my perception again.

Dear Readers, what do you think great people managers should be like? And I’d love to find out your personality types, so do share! And if you don’t already know your MBTI type, take the test here!

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