The old fisherman was lying on a rock, smoking his pipe and watching a beautiful sunset. A businessman who was passing by approached him and asked him: “What are you doing here resting instead of taking advantage of these hours to continue fishing?” “And why should I?” the sailor replied. “Well, because I could sell more fish, and with the profits buy a bigger boat,” the executive argued. “And why do I want a bigger boat?” the fisherman asked him again. “It's obvious: to continue accumulating more fish and earning a lot more money.” “And why do I want more money?” He asked her again. “Because then I could enjoy life!” declared the businessman. “And what do you think I'm doing right now?” the old fisherman replied ironically.
This well-known story serves to question the foundations of professional ambition and reflect on the need to always put work at the service of higher objectives, preventing it from becoming an end in itself. The old fisherman represents all the people who refuse to be defined by their professional side and who break with the paradigm that stubbornly associates what we do with what we are. Simply put, they want a happy life, not a brilliant resume.
Although it may seem that these types of approaches are only the heritage of idyllic worlds, reality tells us that they are becoming more and more earthly. In fact, according to a study carried out by Randstad last year, two out of every three Spanish workers put their personal life before their professional life. Furthermore, analyzing the data by age, it turns out that more than half of Generation Z and millennials would leave their job if it prevented them from enjoying other facets of life, compared to a third of baby boomers.
All this leads us to a conceptual evolution of ambition. Historically, it was understood that an ambitious person was one who fought with determination for professional success, but in recent times a much broader meaning is appearing, which involves balancing the different roles that give meaning to our existence.
It is what we could call “holistic ambition”, based on the conviction that life is like a castle, and that not only does the tower of work exist, but we also have towers as important as family, friends, hobbies or physical and mental health. Under this paradigm, the ambition is to strengthen all the towers, since focusing on just one puts the safety and stability of the entire building at risk.
Along the same lines, we must not ignore that there is another fundamental tower, which is that of personal values. The aforementioned Randstad study also highlights that 40% of employees would only work in responsible companies. Holistic ambition also involves finding organizations that facilitate professional development without having to give up moral principles.
Talent management in work-centric societies is always much simpler. But everything seems to indicate that the situation is changing. So companies and institutions would do well to do a deep reflection, with the aim of looking for new formulas that allow a good integration of the professional tower in the castle of life. Because it is just as bad to always lie on the rock as it is to spend the day fishing.
