In one of the discussions in my Recruiter’s Roundtable program a member mentioned a blog post by Seth Godin that touched a nerve with several people. In the post, Seth talked about why many people don’t succeed using the most popular planning advice put out by productivity gurus like David Allen. He said that most of those strategies don’t work because they lack a key ingredient.
Here’s an excerpt of what Seth had to say:
Getting things done, 18 minute plans, organized folders… none of them work as well as you’d like.
The reason is simple: you don’t want to get more done.
You’re afraid. Getting more done would mean exposing yourself to considerable risk, to crossing bridges, to putting things into the world. Which means failure…
You don’t need a new plan for next year. You need a commitment.
Seth’s words reminded me of the fact that a lot of the tasks that I discuss with recruiters — planning, making calls, tracking activity etc. — don’t get accomplished because people don’t want to do them. Trying to get yourself to do things that you don’t want to do can work in the short term, but over the long haul it’s like swimming upstream.
That’s why you need to find a way to connect your passion to this business. If you’re excited about what you’re doing, time flies, you’re “in the zone,” and you’re performing at your peak. I’ve interviewed dozens and dozens of $500,000-plus recruiters in my work, and I cannot think of one of them that lacked a passion for the business.
Many years ago I received some very good advice from an accomplished owner when I first opened my firm. He said, “Gary, focus on the parts of the business that you’re talented at and look forward to, and pay people to do the rest.” This perspective has allowed me to focus my energy on areas where I could flourish and excel instead of waking up every day trying to get myself to perform a list of tasks that I was resisting.
Here are some things that you might focus on to add passion to your work:
- You love to help candidates bump up a level in their careers.
- You love making a ton of money.
- You love being able to afford the best schools for your kids.
- You love helping people.
- You love your niche.
- You love the thrill of the hunt.
And for the parts of the business that you find mundane or unappealing, hire someone to do them for you, then get back to doing what you do best. Even if you are a recruiter working for someone else, it may make sense to hire someone to do some of your sourcing or admin work. You can often pay people as little as $8 per hour for low-level tasks.
Here are some websites where you can find assistants to do those tasks for you and at very inexpensive prices:
- Fiverr: It doesn’t get any cheaper than this. People will do some very creative things for you for just five bucks. I pay $5 to have my audio interviews for the Roundtable edited via this website.
- Ask Sunday: Can you really get a dedicated assistant to do some of your dirty work for just $119/month? Yep, you sure can.
- Get Friday: Their basic plan starts at just $65/ month. They provide similar services as compared with Ask Sunday.
- Elance: The old standby. Elance is easy to use and has excellent reporting tools to track your contractors. I pay just $10/ hour for my web site administrator through elance. You can find just about anyone for anything here.
The bottom line is that there is help out there (if you look for it) that would allow you to focus your time and talent on the parts of this business that you enjoy. You can either do what you love, or find a way to love what you do, but one way or another, you’ve got to add desire and inspiration to your work in order to really excel over time.
