This Will Make You Give Your Utmost and Get Promoted

There is a hard truth that young people must understand and, the earlier you understand, the better.

Struggle isn’t something you should fear when it comes to your career. In fact, you shouldn’t fear doing overtime, or putting in hard work. What is fearful, is you don’t get a chance to struggle.

Having a dislocated shoulder, suffering an injury or simply getting beaten up in the game is not the worst. What is worst, is being forced to sit on the bench to watch your team play and even after the final whistle is blown you still have not gotten your chance to play on the field.

You have trained all your life preparing for this ultimate challenge and you don’t even get the chance to show your talent. You want to give your utmost but realised your team won the game without you. They don’t even need you. This is what you have to fear most.

I have recently watched a clip that talks about a term that originated from Japan. In the land of the rising sun, there is a term called “battle point”. What it means is the opportunity for you to prove your worth. The video explained that the average battle point in Japan is 62 years old. That means many people may not get their chance to prove themselves before their retirement, and some people may have to wait their entire life for it.

In real-life society, it doesn’t mean you want to work hard you will get a chance to work hard. In your life, you may only get that one rare chance to prove your worth and should it come, you must absolutely seize the opportunity at whatever costs. Without battle points, hard work and sacrifice will result in nothing.

There are only a few key battle points in our lifetime — Major exams, marriage and work. Take major school exams for example. Is it tough? Yes, it is. Is it hard work? Yes, it is. But it is the most straightforward battle point of all the rest and it is guaranteed. What do I mean by guaranteed? If you are willing to put in the hard work, you are guaranteed the opportunity to show your worth at the exams.

But once you step into society, the battle point will change and decrease dramatically. No one will tailor a test just for you to show your capability. What you read from self-help authors or personal development trainers is a skewed reality that assumed you are the one your company need to rise to the top. If you are willing to work hard and help the organisation solve problems you will get a promotion after promotion. This is only half the truth!

Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!

Real life doesn’t work like that. When you enter into any organisation you will immediately realise, most organisations can actually function without you. An organisation functions based on its sound structure and its systematic processes. A good organisation will have redundancy to ensure the machinery can continue to churn even in the absence of some of its workforce. A great organisation will even have their own talent programme to groom a pre-selected group of individuals.

The vast majority of you youngsters will end up working your ass off and be told the promotion was meant for someone else. Many of you will sacrifice your youth only to be laid off because your area of work has become obsolete, replaceable, outsource-able, and for all sorts of other reasons.

So if you are a youngster eager to do well in your career and you so coincidentally come across an opening that has a clear path of progression and the opportunity of a good paycheck, you must seize it and absolutely put in your utmost. That is your space to show your worth, the space for you to invest your time where you know it would be rewarded and the space for you to progress in life. Don’t complain about the hard work or the sacrifice you have to make. You have to understand battle points are hard to come by, the older you are the rarer it becomes. Don’t waste your entire life waiting for that best opportunity only to realise your last opportunity was your best opportunity.If you are in an organisation where your talent is not needed, don’t waste your youth climbing that tree, some trees don’t bear fruit. Don’t complain, work on finding another tree, one that you can clearly see the fruit and give it nothing but your best.

If you want to rise to your full potential, you must find the right tree to climb and give it your utmost.