Some of our lovely team having fun pasta making at a recent team awayday
An old friend and colleague used to say “The teamwork makes the dream work” and I have been reflecting a lot on this lately. In the beginning Do What You Love was my baby – I made all the decisions, some of the progress, and most of the mistakes. But now we have a team she has grown into something far bigger than that.
Every now and then a small part of me wistfully remembers the very early days, when I had a deep seated feeling in my gut about why I had to do it, even if I didn’t really know what I was doing. It was a heady, innocent time, when I was at once inspired and overwhelmed by the possibilities.
Many lessons, hurdles, questions and twists in the road later, that feeling of why hasn’t changed, but the difference is I’m now surrounded by people who know exactly what they are doing.
And the best bit about having a team? You build something together. You share the excitement, the plans, the dreams, the ups and downs, the workload, the celebrations. This is no longer my big idea, it’s OUR big idea.
As a business owner, every time you take on a new member of staff you get that flicker of fear as you see the impact on your immediate cashflow – it’s one of the inevitable growing pains. But then you remember that you should be grateful you need those extra people, and your team will be better for having them. It also recently struck me that my little baby – Do What You Love – now supports families and mortgage-paying and adventures far beyond our own family. That makes me so happy.
My personal career has travelled a very unusual path, but one of the consistent threads along it has been the commitment to helping other people fulfil their true potential – whether that was as an interpreter for world-class Olympic athletes on the cusp of medal glory, or hosting a TV show to make foreigners feel more at home in Japan, whether improving access to education for girls at UNICEF, or designing a legacy for a major world event. And now, through the simple act of recruitment for Do What You Love, we have the opportunity to not only build our own team, but be a part of someone else’s own career journey, helping them do what they love as they help us help others do what they love.
I am excited to be hiring again (see here for details) and would be grateful if you could share this opportunity with anyone you know who may see it as just what they are looking for.
This week we challenge you to rethink something that you do regularly in the course of your job or business, and see it in the context of human potential. How are you providing opportunities for others in the course of doing what you do?
Have a great week!
Beth
