Doing Good Work Right
By Chris Chan, Founder of Good Work Rising
Welcome to my very first blog. A blog I have been contemplating to write for the longest time. And the best topic to begin is to introduce my very first entrepreneurship, Good Work Rising.
To begin, I have been a worker or the chinese would say, a “打工仔” for a very long time (since 2008?). As we all know, let’s be honest, at any time in the history of mankind, to work for a company, is to help its boss achieve his dream, earn his money so he can pay you a salary. It is very transactional, whether you love the company’s culture, your colleagues, your job, but towards the end, you are either made reluctant or you leave the office for better opportunities. “It's not personal, Sonny. It's strictly business.” as Michael Corleone said in The Godfather (1972). I really don’t see myself working as a marketing dude till I am 50, I will eventually be replaced!
So whenever I was procrastinating at work, at home or stressed out about being retrenched someday. The thought of starting my own business is always taking a poke on my head. And of course, the fear of starting a new business, failure, rejection and whatever negative thoughts that my 40-year-old brain will convince me will never allow me to make that start.
It was until one day when I was reading a book called “Start More Than You Can Finish” by Becky Blades when I was riding a train back home after a long unproductive day of work and seeing my baby son calling “ye ye” to a photo of my deceased father who he never met, I had an epiphany. I saw a sign, actually not a sign, but a word, “Good”. Am I a good person, father, husband, son or friend? Am I doing good work? If I am good in at least 2 of these things, then why am I putting myself down, why do I have fear of not being good at who I am or what I do? As Master Yoda quoted, “Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering”, I decided not to allow fear from stopping me to do good, to do good work. It is time to start my own company, to create my own job.
Of course, I have to be practical. I am still a family man with mouths to feed. I am not going to quit my day job for my own startup. I can always do it on my free time, or in my mind when I am procrastinating. As there is a saying:
”The work you do while you procrastinate is probably the work you should be doing for the rest of your life.” - Jessica Hische
Enough said, I am sold and I hope you are too! It is time to get out of our comfort zone and start doing some good work you love!
I don’t think I am a thought leader or a subject matter expect of some technical stuff. But through my work experiences, from camera crew to an on-air promo TV producer and a marketing manager, I can dare say I am a motivator, a servant leader and a great work buddy among my peers! Therefore I would like to leave you some golden tips to how we should be doing good work, the right way! I won’t go too in depth in this blog or else it will be super long-winded, but I will elaborate each rule in the upcoming blogs (I might change some along the way…).
Break all rules and create your own!
Have you ever heard of “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail”, or “you have to finish what you started”, “build a sitemap before designing the website” or rules implemented by mentors of the past. I would suggest you “select all” and “shift-delete” these rules as what they are going to do is to hinder you from starting anything. Trust your own creative process, let it flow. And remember, take ownership of your work, do it your own way! Your rules.
Be gentle to your idea, treat it like your own son, or wife or whoever you love.
Ever thought that when you treat your idea as someone you love, you can’t expect him or her to give you back 100% or to serve you unconditionally. Build a relationship, cultivate it, take a break away from it, revisit it, patch up with it. Who knows, this could help lead from one idea into another inspiration. Ideas take time to form, so does you, when you meet obstacles, don’t quit! You have to trust the creative process. But keep in mind, does the process knows that we are trusting it? Keep calm and keep moving!
Ignore critics, stand firm and love what you do!
“Remember that no one ever kicks a dead dog!” - Dale Carnegie
No one will criticize, scrutinize, make fun of a “dead” and “boring” work. Remember the movie “The Room” by Tommy Wiseau? It is soooo bad that it is funny and epic! You can’t help it but to keep on watching this movie to see how bad can it be! There is a slang in Hong Kong, “柒到盡頭便是型”, meaning “Being foolish to the extreme becomes a style of its own!”. Believe in your work when no one does, trust me when you share it with more people, somehow, one day, you will find someone like-minded who appreciates it!Do it cheap, messy but good! Some great works out there are never refined!
Avoid being a perfectionist, if I would to revise, reread, iterate every single work in this blog to make it perfect, I will never get it done. And for work wise, especially in creativity, my best advice is to get it done asap when you are in the flow, before distractions or negativity come into the picture. Iteration also comes much later, because sometimes, you will realize some art or work looks better when it is 3/4 completed. Why do it as cheap as possible, it is obvious when it comes to profitability right?
Stay loyal and committed to your work.
Just a personal thought, I have reached a certain age and I am only committed to a few things, family, food and my hobbies. Why? Because these are the only things that interest me and keeps me motivated! Therefore my final advice in doing good work right, the work has to be something that you will be proud of and committed to. Somehow, your loyalty to your work will be paid off, inspiration will come along the way, like-minded people will be inspired by your passion. I was once asked by a job interviewer, what’s the 1 word I would describe about myself. I gave it a long thought and I never answered that person and lost my job interview. But now, I could give you the perfect word “persistence”.
That’s all folks, the 5 rules I try to keep while doing good work! Of course, I will need to break them from time to time. To be creative is also to be flexible! I hope this blog makes sense to you, if not, just do the good work your way!
