Impressive Expression

The other day, me and my colleague were reviewing a presentation that was to be given to students and fresh graduates who were about to embark on a journey in the IT industry. There was one slide which talked about having the right attitude. I had an idea to put forth at the time- but I could not put in across as clearly as I would have liked to. And when I read this quote, I was delighted to see that it put my thoughts in the correct set of words:

“It's easy to let life deteriorate into making a living instead of making a life. It's not the hours you put in, but what you put into the hours that counts. Learn to express rather than impress. Expressing evokes a "me too"' attitude while impressing evokes a "so what" attitude.”
~ Jim Rhon

Express v/s impress. A difficult, but very important lesson to learn. And the sooner one learns it, the better. I have an interesting example to give here. I had a colleague who frequently got into petty arguments with people. Over time, I realized what the problem was: he saw every thing as an opportunity to show off his knowledge. Whether it was an interview, a meeting or a general discussion, he assumed it was a chance for him to showcase his talent and expertise. No one ever had any doubts about his knowledge or expertise- everyone has acknowledged long back that this guy was good. But everyone shied away from interacting with him because of his "I know it all" attitude. So in spite of him being so talented, neither could he be of any help to people, nor could he add any value by his presence.

I had talked about this in another post of mine (Clash of the Titans), that after a certain stage, we need to stop asking others to certify our worth. Instead, we need to join this "others" camp and help people understand their worth.

Work on your expression, and your impression will take care of itself.