As you begin to work on matters of your watch and begin to steer your world towards a better future, you want to avoid settling for material comfort and remain committed to your mission. Your job is to move mountains and perform miracles in the socio-economic sphere. You have to decide early in your career how far you are willing to go and what would bring you the greatest sense of fulfillment and impact. A lot of emerging leaders and voices get derailed after their first taste of success. As they begin to get into money, they allow it to get them out of their art. You have to decide that you will not settle for a caricature of your vision.
As you become more comfortable, will you remain in pursuit of the goal? Doing important work is associated with slow progress. When you are working hard for a better future, it is difficult to see or identify results of your efforts in the short term. This means that a performance evaluation might be discouraging and you would be tempted by other things. There will be alternatives that yield better returns with half of your current commitments. If your goal is to enrich yourself, then it would make sense to focus on how you can make the most money from the least amount of work. A true watchman understands that the goal is not personal enrichment and must never evaluate progress by any other metric apart from impact made.
A man in search of a value driven business idea was asked, “If money was not a factor, what business would you like to build?” His response revealed the ignorance in his soul when he answered, “If making money is not important, why would I be building a business?” There is no crime in optimizing life for maximum income and comfort, but that is not the way of a watchman. The watchman understands that there is no fulfillment in acquisition of material possessions. We get a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment in the things we give and not the things we get for ourselves. Do not settle for materialism at the expense of your watch.
