In the management of our organisation I interviewed thousands of people. Finding the right person is always a challenge, because nothing can be certain.
After much time I learnt a better formula. It is to consider all relationships as journeys. There is the individual's journey, and the organisation's journey.
So during the interview and the reviews I always tried to gauge which journey the individual was on, and whether it was generally in line with our journey at least in the same direction and the individual shared the organisation's values.
Those individual's who came with their life goal 'to be happy' or 'to be rich' etc. were always a disappointment, because they were too short sighted or made too many compromises and were often out of tune with our style, structure and systems.
Great things are born out of passion of pursuing ideas with devotion and commitment and do what they did was right or appropriate. Such people often land up being happier and better off than those who chase money and happiness.
Wealth and happiness are not goals in themselves, they are byproducts of living, working and playing with passion and commitment.
This needs not be true of only professional lives but also personal relationships and marriage. After three decades of comparing notes I discovered the following. All those who travelled on the same journey got the most from the relationship and those who wanted to pursue opposing or different journey's as their colleagues and partners always wasted their time and life energies.
There is a however a vital precondition, that we ourselves know what journey we are on and have an idea even if hazy, as to where we are heading. For that we have to be proactive, that is being active before the need arises.
Unfortunately most of us and most organisations themselves do not know their own goals and their own journey. As a result we keep on making and discarding relationships reacting to impulses rather than to ideas and dreams. Jumping from one unsatisfactory relationship to the other exhausting and frustrating ourselves
Some get so exhausted or so hardened they simply burn out and become inactive, just treating their lives as one long dreary journey to nowhere.
This is why the Gurus, teachers and wise leaders throughout human history have asked us to 'Know Thyself'.