I Got Fired Today

Not a great day, as days go.

Sometimes, despite our best efforts, we don't do well enough against the established standard, and that's what happened I think.   I regret it happening as it doesn't feel good, but intellectually I understand the decision and I know it didn't happen because I slacked off, or didn't put enough effort into it.

Specifically, I was fired from an associated commitment I had - teaching a segment on sales system automation at a locally respected business school (university). This is something I did that was above and beyond my normal work-life.  I enjoyed it, and tried to pass along the benefit of my experience.  I think I was successful in doing that, but by an objective measure, that's also not what I was there to do - I was asked to address an area of business life that is painful and problematic for almost everyone, and to do so within a mixed group of 20 or so people from different companies, in three hours time.  My remit sat amidst other learning these same people had taken on - ranging from conceptual and theoretical ideas about how sales and marketing work together to presentation skills.

The disconnect happened in expectations I think.  You see my area was almost the only one where the audience had some previous experience, and came into the time we had together with genuine pains. I differentiate this from a more generic desire to know more, or work smarter in general.  In many ways, I was asked to try to do the impossible, and I saw that and discussed it with those that had assembled the couse materials.   But at the end of the day, participants rate these courses, and we live or die by these ratings.  I've no issues with that - just that my judges addressed my work as to whether it was applicable to, and/or solved their issues vs the other presenters who would have been judged on whether the ideas were good, or potentially offered an implementation pathway towards working better. I'd offer a medical analogy of a class wanting to know about practicing medicine in general, who arrive  in this session with a stomach ache.  My task was to educate them, and cure the stomach ache - everyone else just had to educate them.

So, in taking on the impossible, did I see this as a potential outcome ?  Yes, but I didn't acknowledge it as a realistic outcome - again with mismatched expectations.

One of the little sayings I like is that if you don't fail 20% of the time, you're probably not trying hard enough.  I'm going to chalk up this experience to that I think - I tried to do the impossible and failed.  I'm glad I tried though.