Will you go that Extra Mile?

During my MBA, I had an interesting lecture on Transportation Management where the Professor talked about the Trucking Business. In his lecture he said, there are lot of truck drivers from Haryana, Punjab who form the majority of the people driving trucks and there are not many from other parts of the country who are into it, because of which there is kind of a vacuum which gets built up wherein people who would want to be in the trucking business, cannot do so since they have to depend on people from Haryana and Punjab willing to do a certain kind of a job and not people from their own state for that matter, which is assumed to be more convenient method of working or doing business instead of the other way around.

So, here’s the million dollar question?

Are there people made for certain type of jobs and hence are more sort after?

Do the people who are “at it” kind of people, at it in their jobs and by “at it”, I mean at it for Decades all together, bound to be “successful”?

Jobs!

Having been in a job for 41 months and now having completed my MBA, I can certainly vouch for it that people who are not those “at it” kind of people get easily frustrated. And this frustration stretches and stretches and gets to a point where in you make a decision. The Decision of staying in the firm or not. How long will you be “at it”? How long will you do something which doesn’t give you that kick? How long will you eat the same food in the office canteen? How long will you keep staring at the same pay cheque every month?

But for some reason people who are “made for that job” don’t seem to have any problem with the above thing? They seem to be, let’s say “Acceptable” to their jobs and won’t just quit. May be they don’t quit because they are just happy and content. For truck drivers, they are happy or let’s say OK with driving trucks, for people in the South, presumed to be good in Programming, Maths and Science are seen to be either people working in the software Industry or are people working for ISRO. They just don’t quit. They retire. Yet Infosys or ISRO as an organization don’t face a resource crunch. A resource which could take their businesses ahead. Yet a person who would want to start a logistics business in say West Bengal would face so many difficulties. It’s not only about logistics. It’s about mindset of people who would not want to do certain kind of work and even if they do, they don’t sustain in that job for long. For Example, We find several such people from UP & Bihar working as Taxi Drivers, Press walas and other service kind of jobs in Mumbai which either Maharashtrians refuse to do may be because they find it “smaller” in comparison or are just not sustainable in it. The Plumbers or Cooks who come from Orissa, Jharkhand and work in cities like Bengaluru or NCR, Culturally inclined Singers, Artists or Musicians who come from West Bengal to make their name in Bollywood, there are umpteen such examples like that.

Of course Money and one’s livelihood is the MOST important factor. Agreed. But is it only about the Money? Doesn’t even that saturate after a while? Either ways, it seems if you are just there and there for good, you rise in any organization. Just be there and Walk that Last Mile, Question is how many of us really have that kind of Patience?