What You Think You Deserve vs. What You Have Earned. A Tale about Hard Work

My personal experience has taught me that if I haven’t received from life what I think I deserve, it is most likely because I need to do a better job at earning it.

I was resting before my next fight during my latest Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu tournament when a mother of one of the kids, who was competing in the children’s competition,  approached me, looking quite desperate, looking for feedback she told me that she needed my help.  Her son had just lost his first fight against a more skillful kid and she insisted on showing me the video of her son’s fight to see if I could give her tips on how to improve his technique.  Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a sport that does not believe in talent. One improves by training constantly. There is no secret formula for overnight improvement, just like life.  I looked at her and noticed that she was very concerned and recommended that she should have a talk with her son’s coach to understand the process and let him take care of his progress.  She replied, “I want to help him but I do not know how”.  I am also a father and completely understood her position.  We do not want our kids to go through unnecessary hardship.

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Execution and Extreme Ownership The DIG/SET/SPIKE Principle

Include yourself in every win and loss and take time to have fun and laugh about your mistakes. They are a gift that life gives you.

 

Over the last 2 years, I have been blessed with the wonderful opportunity to lead an operational execution team and we have managed to put together a group of fine professionals. They combine knowledge and experience but also curiosity for improvement and a hunger for growth. It has reached a point where we need to stop and look around and reflect. The conclusion I have reached is that we dedicate ourselves to execute plans that are being handed to us… right?  More reflection is needed to find the real purpose:  We hold in our hands the service delivery promise to our clients. Suddenly a job with no apparent complexity has become one with the highest possible stakes.

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The “H” Factor

The H factor stands for HUMANS and we cannot forget this factor when going digital.

 

The Journey of Digitalization

In the last six months, I have been involved in the journey of digitalization. I am very passionate about it as there is no limit to what can be achieved when a large group of professionals get together and commit themselves to do things that have not been done before in the shipping business.  However, this journey also brings an opportunity to start thinking about the role of humans in this process.

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Never Touch a Painting when it’s Wet – A Story About Constant Care…

 

 

This article is about constant care and the maturing process. When I started working in shipping I wanted to work in operational execution.  I applied so many times and never got the opportunity.  I overheard a manager make a comment about me once: “He doesn’t have the required emotional intelligence to work in operations”.  That did not make me feel very happy.  Then I experienced the greatest motivational drive for me, that stubborn feeling when someone tells me that I cannot do something.  It took me years and several applications to finally get to where I wanted to be.  I was offered the wonderful opportunity of leading a team overseas.

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Our Imperfections Keep us Alive

Our imperfections are as a result of being unique and this uniqueness is the footprint we leave – our legacy.

 

Working as a health coach was by far one of most the most meaningful growth experiences in my life.  It gave me the opportunity to drive changes in my athletes that would have a positive impact on their lives.  For each one of them, the path would be different depending on the WHAT, the HOW and the WHY.  WHAT they wanted to accomplish, HOW they would do it and WHY they wanted to do it.  In order to move forward with the plan, the WHY has to be completely understood and to achieve this your senses have to be open for patterns and traits that are the reflection of the person.  These patterns and traits are often referred to as imperfections.  We look at these imperfections as things that are difficult to move away from but are apart of us but need to be changed.  No wonder we perceive this path as a struggle.

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My Morning Bike Ride

We live in a wonderful world, full of wonderful people with an abundance of opportunities that sometimes we fail to see because we forget to love this world. Let’s go and give our best and have an epic day.

I just woke up and start packing my stuff for the day. Take out my bike and check the lights.  It is very foggy this morning.  I Start my bike ride, take a deep breath and take one minute of silence to enjoy the scent of positivity in the air.  I clear my mind.  I thank God for being alive and strong enough to ride to work once again this morning.  I thank Him for having a job to go to this morning.  I thank Him that I have two children to support so I have enough motivation to work hard and excel in what I do. I thank Him for my brothers and their continuous support.  I thank Him for my friends who care for me, making me realize that there is an abundance of kind people in this world.  I give thanks to Him for my colleagues who boost my competitive spirit, teamwork and make my workplace fun.  I thank Him for my boss who doesn’t let me relax, always challenging me to do better every day.  I give thanks to Him for my team who gives me the opportunity every day to serve them as a leader. I give thanks to Him for the cold breeze on my face as I continue riding feeling alive and full of love at this moment.  Then I thank Him for my amazing life and my wonderful day ahead.

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About Work Ethics…

As leaders, we have a responsibility of coaching young executives in order to leave our legacy as part of their professional growth.

Let’s talk about work ethics. We live in an ever changing dynamic world where words like improvement, profit, market share, EBIT and success are sometimes more common than shopping lists and people’s names. Everyone wants to lead without having a clear definition of what it takes to become a leader. I have been listening a lot lately to talks about understanding the millennials and talent retention and I agree that we need to be more flexible going forward.  However, there are some rules that even if we change them in the way we explain them and drive for the teams by in, we must not change the basic essence of them.  As leaders, we have a responsibility of coaching young executives in order to leave our legacy as part of their professional growth.

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Life is Now

Our moment in life is now and we must take full responsibility of our decisions and the learning that comes from them.

I am a firm believer that we come into this world with an empty toolbox. As we walk along our path, we find tools along the way.  Sometimes the tools that we find are not useful immediately but one will always find a use for it down the road.  I always like to relate this to a TV series that I used to watch during my childhood called “McGyver”. It was about this very smart agent that collected several items during the episode and at the end he would save the day with a clever “gadget solution” made out of all the items he had collected.

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How Can I Help?

Wouldn’t it be great if we lived on a planet where we ask every morning with a big smile on our face: how can I help?

A couple of years ago, I was struggling both in my professional and personal life. I started being over anxious about my future and so I was not enjoying my present. Does this sound familiar? Most of the time we get so immersed in ourselves that we fail to enjoy our life by missing out on those beautiful moments around us. I sat down and started thinking about what I could do to stop worrying so much and just allow things to be.

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The Celebration of Life and the Pursuit of Happiness

The celebration of life is the fuel that will keep us happy in the process of achieving our goals.

This article has been written at a time when most of us have given up on our new year’s resolution. And now we need to ask why it is so common that we fail in our resolutions? We set measurable objectives and we make a plan to achieve them.  Then what is missing?  Most of our plans miss two crucial aspects:  preventative plan for relapses and a plan to ensure that we enjoy the process.  The main reason we miss this is that there is a general belief that in order to achieve our goals and ensure happiness, we need to put ourselves through hell while we pursue this happiness.  We tend to compare hard work with being miserable.

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