Now, before I start, let me be clear. I’m not asking anyone to become a raging egomaniac and consider themselves a god at work. That doesn’t help anyone and will most probably make you many enemies (For good reason)
But.
Having zero pride will endanger your career, your work, and your mental health.
Let me explain.
The pride people take in their work transcends to their homes, their education, families, and communities
— Leonard Boswell
We spend so much of our time listening to people telling us that pride is no good. You must be humble and set your pride aside when your work is attacked. The funny thing is, it’s our pride that gets us out of bed every day.
What does it mean to take pride in your work?
According to Indeed.com, taking pride in your work means that you feel satisfied with your contributions to your job. People who take pride in their work value their own efforts to help customers, create products, support their company, or provide quality services.
So, what happens when there’s no pride in your work?
Your quality suffers
Let’s say you are a salesperson for a brand of shoes. If you had no care about the work you do, you wouldn’t give over 30% to satisfy your customers. On top of this, if you had no pride in the shoes you sell, then how could you be expected to sell them? And you might be the most skilled person on the team, but without pride, those skills will rust.
Your customers get turned off
One hallmark of zero pride is the lack of authenticity. When you have no pride in the work you do, it shows. There are more mistakes, a lackadaisical approach to projects. And the first person to realize this will be your customers. Why would they want to work or interact with someone who’s so lukewarm?
You’ll take no risks and won’t grow
This point is extremely important for creatives. As people whose raison d’être is to push boundaries and come up with out-of-the-box ideas, having no pride in your abilities and work means you will never have out-of-the-box ideas. Especially when you seem to hate the box itself.
You risk burnout
This is something I know from bitter experience. Doing work you aren’t proud of will inevitably lead to burnout. The more you’re involved with projects you take no pride in, the more resources you spend trying to do those projects. The more you push yourself, the closer you get to shutting down.
Yikes.
Who runs the world? It’s Pride.
Sure, while money might be a contributing factor, the truth remains that all the CEOs we venerate actually have genuine pride in their work. We spend so much of our lives at work, it would be criminal to forget what gets us out of bed.
Don’t believe me?
Just look at the artists, the CEOs, and restaurateurs working nights.
