ioana
in quest for genuine
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About Me
- Name: ioana
- Location: Bucharest, Romania
I experiment with myself and the world around me. I always seek for that small sparkle of what's real and authentic in things, people, nature...
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Monday, November 06, 2006
When you need a label for your value
It is this point that I reached, the one that I always despised and mocked, the point where I need a label to prove my value! Oh, and I still despise it so, but I have no more power to mock it, since I've been shown I'm no valuable in my non-labelled existence.
I like to say and believe that the true added value that any individual brings to a team or to an organization is his/her personal story. No matter what qualifications, education or experience one has, the true value lies in the ability to understand and learn from that education and experience. I can tell you countless examples of people I know, most of them can put up a great resume on the paper, but when you actually talk and work with them, it's all empty words!
When I started university that was also my dream: to have the best grades, quickly grasp some extracurricular activity and apply for a "top-notch" Master/MBA at some posh expensive university that would look fantastic on my resume. Funny enough, after a thorough pursuit of this dream even since high school, I realized at some point in my second year that I was not really building valuable additions to myself, but merely looking to add up some labels to make myself more valuable.
This is how all this journey towards the "authentic me" started, and it's not showing any signs of stopping soon. But…what to do when faced with the blunt reflection of my so thought added value through the mirror of the "real world"? I'm now seeking my next stop, hoping not to be only a job, but a wonderful start for a professional experience. And the first time I though I found it, in the final selection round they chose the other candidate. Which was fine in the end, because I felt it would happen, and realised I didn't fit with the manager and the team there. But the second time, of the second time! I didn't even get to tell my story, because well, I don't have an MBA!
Coming to think more at it, this is not the only one label I am missing: I also don't work for some large well-known corporation, I don't wear designer's clothes, neither do I follow the latest trends in lifestyle. Labels are everywhere, we are already used to put them on to validate our value, expertise, style, status. But what lies behind the power the label gives someone? See, the reason I tend to reject labels is their gold glow usually wrapped around fade copper. Labels fake it!
I'm really looking for the real, authentic and unique in people, and labels just include you in a smaller target, more exclusive maybe, depending if you afford it/are up to it. And the smaller the group, the bigger the brainwash. You can enslave yourself studying day and night to graduate an MBA at Harvard, only to find you more enslaved working day and night at that "top employer" that wisely recruited you for your "top-notch" diploma. Would an MBA make you smarter? Sure, but I won't buy you any wisdom! And will a Gucci dress make you look more stylish? Of course, but it won't buy you any class!
Labels are mainly built on perception: once this is established, the real value once there will gradually fade away, just as long as the perception perpetuates. So, I say, long live No Logo!
I like to say and believe that the true added value that any individual brings to a team or to an organization is his/her personal story. No matter what qualifications, education or experience one has, the true value lies in the ability to understand and learn from that education and experience. I can tell you countless examples of people I know, most of them can put up a great resume on the paper, but when you actually talk and work with them, it's all empty words!
When I started university that was also my dream: to have the best grades, quickly grasp some extracurricular activity and apply for a "top-notch" Master/MBA at some posh expensive university that would look fantastic on my resume. Funny enough, after a thorough pursuit of this dream even since high school, I realized at some point in my second year that I was not really building valuable additions to myself, but merely looking to add up some labels to make myself more valuable.
This is how all this journey towards the "authentic me" started, and it's not showing any signs of stopping soon. But…what to do when faced with the blunt reflection of my so thought added value through the mirror of the "real world"? I'm now seeking my next stop, hoping not to be only a job, but a wonderful start for a professional experience. And the first time I though I found it, in the final selection round they chose the other candidate. Which was fine in the end, because I felt it would happen, and realised I didn't fit with the manager and the team there. But the second time, of the second time! I didn't even get to tell my story, because well, I don't have an MBA!
Coming to think more at it, this is not the only one label I am missing: I also don't work for some large well-known corporation, I don't wear designer's clothes, neither do I follow the latest trends in lifestyle. Labels are everywhere, we are already used to put them on to validate our value, expertise, style, status. But what lies behind the power the label gives someone? See, the reason I tend to reject labels is their gold glow usually wrapped around fade copper. Labels fake it!
I'm really looking for the real, authentic and unique in people, and labels just include you in a smaller target, more exclusive maybe, depending if you afford it/are up to it. And the smaller the group, the bigger the brainwash. You can enslave yourself studying day and night to graduate an MBA at Harvard, only to find you more enslaved working day and night at that "top employer" that wisely recruited you for your "top-notch" diploma. Would an MBA make you smarter? Sure, but I won't buy you any wisdom! And will a Gucci dress make you look more stylish? Of course, but it won't buy you any class!
Labels are mainly built on perception: once this is established, the real value once there will gradually fade away, just as long as the perception perpetuates. So, I say, long live No Logo!