November 12, 2007

Bangkok Post - 'I'm not sure what to do with my career. Please give me some ideas,'' Khun Nong asks me during a coaching session. ...

''Khun Nong, this is a simple question but there is no simple answer to it. Career depends on each individual and his situation. Let me share with you a story from the book The Angel Inside by Chris Widener.

''The book is written in a storytelling style. It starts by introducing Tom, a young American struggling with his career. Tom decides to go to Europe for two weeks, and the tale starts on the last day of the trip in Florence, Italy.

He meets an old man who tries to teach him by using Michelangelo's David sculpture as a metaphor.''

''Tell me more.'' Nong asked eagerly.

''The big piece of marble that would become David was commissioned to three artists including Leonardo da Vinci. But all three refused to work on it except Michelangelo. A boy once asked Michelangelo why he was working so hard hitting the rock.

''Young boy, there is an angel inside of this rock and I am setting him free,'' he said.

''Khun Nong, the book said that we all have a beauty to us. We are valuable just for who we are. But we are also capable of tremendous power. We can become people of great accomplishment.''

''That's interesting. What else?'' Nong asked.

''The book introduces 10 steps of career advice:

1. Find the angel within you;

2. Follow your own passion;

3. Be confident in your strengths;

4. The beauty is in the details;

5. The hand creates what the mind conceives;

6. Plan and prepare;

7. Start with swift action;

8. Embrace the stage of chipping, sculpting, sanding, and polishing;

9. Sometimes success take years, so be content;

10. No one starts with the Sistine Chapel.

What I like to share with you is number eight.

There are four steps that take marble into a sculpture and these are a good metaphor for career development as well.

Step one, chip or take away the marble that doesn't belong to the work. The part you don't need. In life, we also need to chip away our bad habits or parts of ourselves that prevent us from success.

Step two is sculpting. Sculpting in careers has two tools: people you are with and books you read.

We are a product of the things that we allow to shape and influence our lives. We should choose our business associates, friends and people. We should seek out those who will challenge and encourage us to become the very best that we can become. The goal is to have a network of people around us who act as a springboard to a better life.

For books, the old man gave Tom some advice as well.

I like to view a book as a chance to converse with the author. I like to imagine that the author is speaking these ideas directly to me. I react and ask questions in my mind as I read, and this allows me to 'speak' with the author. This way I am not bound by the limitations of time and space. I can be friends with the greatest minds that walk, and have walked, the earth. I can invite them into my life to challenge my thinking, shape my life, and help me become a better person, a more successful person.''

''Wow, I have never thought that way.'' Nong exclaimed.

''The old man suggests that we should read the works of a person who passed on long ago. If their books are still touching and helping people, it means their ideas must be lasting, and past the test of time. We should avoid vogue content.''

Nong nodded.

''After sculpting is sanding. Sanding represents those times in our lives when seemingly negative circumstances surround us. It is when things grate against us. They can be irritable if we let them be. People, circumstances, they all perform the act of sanding.

Most people seek comfort in their lives. They avoid suffering and adversity. Yet almost all people of significance and accomplishment have experienced tremendous adversity or suffering in their past.''

Nong acknowledged. ''If I avoid sanding, I will be rough.''

''That's correct. If you are still rough, you can not go to next step _ polishing.

The polishing is certainly the enjoyable part. It is what gives us our finish. Polishing must come last. Michelangelo would have created nothing had he started polishing that marble. First he had to chip, sculpt, and sand. Only then he could begin polishing David, thus leaving the world with his lasting work of power and beauty.''

''A good analogy. I must go to buy the book.''

''There is also a book on CD for this one. You will enjoy listening to it during a traffic jam. I have listened to it more than 10 times. There are lots of great ideas.''

Kriengsak Niratpattanasai provides executive coaching in leadership and diversity management under the brand TheCoach. He can be reached at coachkriengsak

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