I usually go home with our CIO because he lives in Carlingford. From the moment we get in the car, our conversation usually starts with something like this – “I am supposed to do A and B but I have not done either of them. I am screwed”. and followed by further discussion on what needs to be done for various things. Work related conversation usually continues until we reach Epping. From Epping to Carlingford we usually talk about family, mainly children’s education. This pattern has been repeated since April 2010 to present.

Yesterday we talked about something – how people appear to be so happy after work. They smile and giggle with others. There are many people in the bars and cafes. I do not personally know any of them but they appear to be a lot happy than me, at least.

While it is true that everyone has their own problems, I have the view that their work related problems must not affect them after business hours. I have reached two possible conclusions – (1) they must be so deadly efficient at what they are doing hence they complete everything on time and in full; or (2) they must not be in such important positions hence they do not need to worry about anything related work after business hours.

Luckily (or unfortunately) I do not fit into either of those two categories. I hardly consider myself as a deadly efficient perfectionist. I rather consider myself the one who does his best all the time. I spend a lot of my time in front of my computer after normal business hours. Perhaps the actual business activities (e.g. distribution, sales, logistics, etc) may stop outside of business hours but the actual planning / decision making processes do not stop because there is no sun. As I get involved in various decision making processes, it is my duty to analyze data and come up with recommendations hence the best decision can be promptly made, rather than wait until the sun rises next day. This is the very reason that it requires my constant attention and dedication, even after business hours.

If you are not in the position to making critical decisions in the best interest of the company or the business can operate without for an extensive period or your service is only required during business hours, then you must be just a part of cogs and wheels can be easily replaced or discarded if necessary.

I do not know about others but the idea of becoming an ordinary employee is something that I am not prepared to accept. It signifies that I am no longer a critical part of the business hence I can be easily replaced by anyone at any time.

I believe in ‘Kaizen’ – it means continuous improvement. From the moment you say to yourself “I have done enough”, you will diminish. If you say to yourself “I am not there yet”, you will grow. I am only a human so there are times when I think “I have done enough”. However, I have learnt how to lie to myself “I have done nothing significant so I need to do more and better”. So far this has worked as others say “I have done enough”. Where am I heading? Until they become completely speechless because “I have done more than they could possibly imagine”.