It might look simple – you work, you get results.

I think I did well in school, I consider I did rather OK as a professional.

But there’s always someone better, both in school and in professional life.

Looking back at both my life and some people I closely know, I think I identified some patterns:

• It matters a lot to do well in school, but it matters even more that you learn from school a persistence in keep doing the right things;
• If you study and then start doing something else in your work life, you’ll get an inherent disadvantage;
• Some people use some rare things really well – I know people working on wind turbines, on tankers, on International NGOs;
• If you do a startup it does matter to have a bright idea, but managing a team is the most important and difficult thing;
• You need to want to make money – this might look obvious, but I do know people who are faced to choose between A and B, and they choose an option that doesn’t bring money; if you don’t want money, it’s not as easy to earn them.

Other than this, I’ll say this again – the most important thing for working efficiently is passion.

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Sometimes, I have something to write on the blog.

And it’s not like it’s “Oh, I can write this today or two years after”.

Most of the time, if I don’t write about that idea within a short timeframe, it’s completely gone.

And, what’s even more surprising is the fact that ideas keep popping up.

I burn ideas, and they come back from the ashes.

The desire to write is high.

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“I don’t have any time for easy and repetitive tasks” I once told while living in student hostels a friend of mine.

He replied that I’d better become someone really important, to really prove that I don’t have any time.

I thought, back then, that if I skip easy and repetitive tasks, that this proves I’m paying attention to my time.

Sometimes in the past one or two months, I’ve read a thought – “If you want to give someone a task, choose someone who’s really important and busy, it’s more likely that the person will do it”.

And I think this is the real thing.

I previously wrote that the most important thing for working efficiently is passion.

The same logic applies to time management – it’s not that important if you have 6 hours of work in a day or 10 hours, for a lot of creative and non-repetitive tasks.

A busy person is more likely to have accomplished lots of things and to know the value of a job done correctly.

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Some jokes can be annoying.

Some people like hearing jokes.

What’s the middle path?

There isn’t one. You can make very soft jokes, not offending anyone, you can be smiling, you can be serene, but the real jokes, the ones that make people laugh, are offensive – to some degree.

It’s part of the job description.

“I will not annoy anyone, so I will never tell a joke” is not a solution.

Choose your battles, learn when to joke and when not to, learn some people who enjoy the jokes, find out what hurts people.

But don’t stop joking because some people don’t like the jokes.

As much as some people would prefer to stop, there are some people who would prefer to continue.

“Do no evil”. Yes, that’s true.

Don’t make over-the-board jokes, don’t attack people, don’t use curse words.

But, within some limits, there are actually no boundaries.

Within some walls, there is liberty.

Get it, and accept the fact that some people would like some stricter laws and more enclosed walls.

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In “Chris Voss Teaches The Art of Negotiation”, the speaker sometimes refers to “calibrated question” – these help put things into context.

I have this problem – it’s difficult for me, sometimes, to give the general context.

I tend to focus on the small detail, on the little aspect, on the minor things.

Seeing the overall story is difficult.

Even when I think of future plans, it’s hard for me to say an overall conclusion. I tend to say “If all goes well, then …”.

It’s rare of me to say “we’ll do so-and-so”, because you can’t be 100% sure, and I don’t feel like making a promise I can’t keep.

How can I solve this?

• One option is to state my emotions. “I feel about X situation so-and-so”.
• Another option is to try and summarize things.
• Also, from time to time, to make promises without having 100% certainty of a situation. 90% might just be good enough.

Coming back to the phrase which opened this article, I once asked a person “So, what’s up with that?”. It was a long-thought question, I prepared for it. It helped defuse a situation, and it took both me and the receiver by surprise.

A question to help equalize the things is surely helpful.

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The word “passion” comes from suffering.

So, passion for work implies suffering.

What’s, to me, the most important criteria in evaluating work?

The passion.

It takes passion, willingness to sacrifice, and ability to focus on the long-term, persistence in order to be successful in work.

If you have passion, you’ll be able to:

• Focus on developing yourself;
• Check for errors;
• Motivate yourself to work;
• Even find pleasure in the results of your work.

No passion – no results, quite simple.

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In “Salman Rushdie Teaches Storytelling and Writing | MasterClass” there was, at some point, a focus on how people talk – if you write something, it will help imagining a real person talking.

To me, that’s rather difficult. I tend to talk like I write, and this empathetic exercise is rather difficult.

But it would be a nice thing to try, in the future.

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