what you do is who you are

especially if you're a quiet quitter. let’s talk about them some more.

paid to do vs. paid to think

My dad, @keithcraft has always made this distinction. There are two kinds of people at work. Those who get paid for what they do and those that get paid for how they think. How does this work? Think about your job.

Do you get paid to complete tasks, turn in assignments and generally do what you are asked to do that day? Good news! You have a job! Bad news, you have a ceiling. Task completion always has a ceiling. There is only so much a person who “does things” for a living can get paid. The quiet quitting movement encourages us to just do what we are asked and no more. There’s not anything inherently wrong with that, unless a person wants to increase their income.

When you have the power to solve problems that no one else can, you are getting paid to think. When you are a person who lives by core values, and implements those values in your daily work, you are getting paid to think. When you are willing to notice things that need doing and get them done, you are getting paid to think. Your boss may not see it as that, but you can. The way you think affects everything you do. If you think poorly, you will achieve poor results. If you think greatly, your results will be great. If you think in a mediocre way, what does that lead to?

The unique distinctive that you have in the marketplace is not your ability to do something. It is your ability to think about the things that you do. When your thinking is valuable to people around you, then you will have no limits on you.

Why aren’t more people monetized for their thinking? Because a lot of people aren’t good at thinking. The amount of people celebrating and buying in to quiet quitting is proof of that.

If what you do is a reflection of your thinking, and what you do is not done with excellence, what does that say about you?

what you do is who you are

This movement also encourages the divorce of your identity from what you do. That’s actually a good idea. Your identity isn’t in your work. But what about your reputation? Your identity isn’t in your work, but your reputation is. There is a lot of merit in not placing your identity in your job. But what the quiet quitting movement fails to recognize is that people are not concerned about your identity. People are concerned with your reputation. What you do is what creates your reputation.

When I was growing up, my dad taught me that everything I did was a reflection of me personally and my family name. So anything I did had to be excellent because the quality of my work is a statement of my quality as a person to the people I’m around. Can this go too far? Absolutely. We should not aim for perfection, but we should aim for excellence.

What is the difference between perfection and excellence? Perfection is about how I look to other people. Excellence is about the effort I know I put in. When you put the effort in to be excellent, your reputation will take care of itself.

Take responsibility for your space, your life, your team, your job and the outcomes. Taking responsibility is the defining characteristic of maturity.

Quitters - quiet or not - don’t take responsibility. They don’t take responsibility for themselves, their reputation, their company, their team, or the outcomes. Irresponsibility is the defining characteristic of immaturity.

“Responsibility is the price of greatness.” // Winston Churchill

In Japanese culture, there is the concept of shokunin which is roughly translated as “artisan.” Shokunin ultimately means to take pride in every aspect of your work, regardless of what your task is. The Japanese are encourages to take pride in even the most menial profession because all work that we can do is art of some kind. Taxi cabs that are 40 years old are perfectly maintained and kept clean at all times. Truck drivers polish even the smallest chrome pieces on their trucks. Why? Because what you do is a reflection of who you are.

The documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi shows the power of being a shokunin. What if every one of us treated what we do this way? This is antithetical to the life of a quiet quitter.