Opinion: only a beautiful success is worth having
December 10th, 2020
While I was walking this morning, I suddenly connected 2 ideas.
To win a beautiful game.
That is what I'm looking for in my career.
Long-term business success is a beautiful game.
And it requires:
business success
technology success
personal success
In my career as a software developer, I focus mainly on (2) technology success.
That is where many of my quests come from:
So the story about the quote goes like this:
Two people are playing a board game against each other.
One person is much better at the game, but plays at a 'lower level' to make it challenging.
When the other person find's out, he says that the other person 'has been going easy on him'.
To which that person replies with:
“Why would I want to win anything other than a beautiful game?”
So when I apply this metaphor of a beautiful game to Model: company success = business + technology + personal success
The beautiful game clearly is the company success.
What would an ugly game look like?
Ugly game: lacking technology success
Development speed slowly grinding to a halt over 5 years time.
Unable to deliver on small, simple things.
Everyone complaining about technical debt.
Ending up with no other choice than a rewrite
More and more pressure to deliver, because delivery gets slower
The rewrite will either*
fail to get finished, ending in a massive waste of effort
or
succeed, with a crappy result not that much better than where it all started
because the problem: 'lack of skill in technical excellence' is unaddressed.
That does not sound like an environment I want to work in.
And the outcome 'no choice but to rewrite', not something I'd be proud of achieving.
Ugly game: lacking business success
Constant cost-cutting
no innovation (aka 'risk taking'
no budget for good equipment
no budget for training/learning
Company going bankrupt
People losing their jobs
People not getting paid
People fear for their jobs
Stressed out leaders
That does not sound like an environment I want to work in.
And the outcome a 'slow death of a company', not something I'd be proud of achieving.
Ugly game: lacking personal success
James Shore mentions
"people will not give it their all."
"sabotaging behaviour in the worst case."
But Simon Sinek nails it with his Quote: cynicism, paranoia, mistrust and self-interest
Leaders set the conditions for trust and cooperation.
Get those conditions wrong and the opposite will occur:
- cynicism,
- paranoia,
- mistrust and
- self-interest.
That does not sound like an environment I want to work in.
And the outcome a 'toxic company culture', not something I'd be proud of achieving.
So
“Why would I want to win anything other than a beautiful game?”
I don't. I definitely don't.
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