I began work at a very young age as I am sure others have.
During that time, I had lots of ups and downs all of which taught me valuable lessons. However, life was and still is my biggest teacher.
I have built this knowledge on a day by day basis. I travelled a lot for business and leisure. I also rubbed shoulders with a lot of successful people from whom I learned and later used these lessons to mentor others.
A lot of people have influenced me and I do hope I in turn influenced others.
Of the things I learned, was that most people, including myself, do not know how to enjoy life. This drove me to wonder why that is, until I remembered that we were taught by our elders that work and leisure will never meet.
During my trips, I saw myself and many other colleagues spending most of our time behind a desk, in a conference call, or on the phone when we could have been doing very simple things that could bring us some deserved fun.
I really wanted to understand this behaviour and wondered whether it was a sickness. Do we really enjoy being busy, or at least pretending to be? I racked my brain trying to find an answer until I came to the conclusion that what we are today, or what we do is related to our childhood and how we have been raised.
Aside from the important lessons our parents and teachers hammered into us, none of them ever encouraged or taught us how to have fun in everything we do.
Whether you are a CEO or a fresh graduate, please do not fall into this trap. Do not work on weekends, or overwork during business trips, or leisure trips.
None of this work will ever give you that push you think it will, nor will it make you or your employer much richer. On the contrary, if you teach yourself and your colleagues, that having fun at work, or in what you do is not harmful, you would end up loving what you do much more and in turn you will become more productive.
That reasoning should be communicated to children, which I am certain will eventually affect their careers in a positive way. Why shouldn’t we save ourselves from the regret of not having enough fun, of not spending more time with our kids and parents since we all agree this might be one of the biggest pleasures in life?
Don’t get me wrong, I am not encouraging people to simply procrastinate, I am just saying, work smarter, enjoy whatever you are doing, and most importantly, spend as much time as possible with your kids and parents.
Elie Aoun is the CEO of Ipsos Connect MEAP.
