How to attain success in your job and at the workplace?

Most people want to have a decent material condition, to be able to care about the family and not to lack the necessary things. This deals a lot with the attitude we have towards work and proffesion we choose. All this determines the respect we have for people too. Some days ago I had a discussion with my sons and I decided that it is good to share the advice I gave them, to other readers, that want to benefit from them. So, how to attain success in your job and at the workplace?

Learn the profession well

God said the next truth through the mouth of the wise king Solomon:

Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men. (Proverbs of Solomon 22:29)(NASB)

A skilled man in his work is the one who knows his job or profession well, one who can do his work the most qualitatively. The one who does his work so will be appreciated by people and those who hold prominent positions in society will ask for  his service, and he will have their and all people’s respect. That’s why, learn a job well. Learn of this time. I know young people that became very good specialists, because they made effort to learn.

In a winter I had some problems with my car, because every morning I couldn’t start the motor. I went to many well-known masters from the city and no one was able to fix the motor, even if they did their utmost. It seemed to me that I had to change a big part of the motor, since it couldn’t be fixed by any means and I had to deal with the same unpleasant experience every morning. Someone advised me to ask for a young man, who was working at a workshop near North–West hotel from Chisinau. My friend took the car and he went to that young man, and what do you think… that young man wasn’t even 20 years old, but he was very busy with his job, because he had a long row of cars. I asked him to look at our car and he, being busy, was amiable too and he came to look at it. He looked at the  motor, then he took a little piece of wire from the ground and he checked something. Then, he told to my friend to go and change a little and cheap detail, about which all said that it was good. He told us to come again if the problem wasn’t solved. He didn’t want to take money. My friend did so as it had been said to him and my car had never had the same problem as it had the whole winter. When I saw that, I couldn’t believe my eyes and I gave money to my friend to go and to pay that young man for his work and because he was a skilled man in his work. He was a great blessing for me in solving the problem I had.

Do your work qualitatively

Sometimes, though people know their profession well, they scamp their work, they do it unqualitatively. Don’t be one of them, if you want to attain success in your job and to gain people’s respect. God teaches us in the Bible:

Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. For he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality.(Colossians 3:23–25)(NASB)

When you don’t do your job qualitatively, it is a way to wrong towards your brother, a way of deceiving them. Or, when you go to buy a cloth and, coming at home, you see that the cloth is torn or blotchy, etc., how do you feel? Cheated and dumbfounded… Don’t do this to others. Do your job well and at the best quality.

Do the work in the appointed time

When people ask for a service from somebody, they normally fix a time when they wait to have their service or product done. Those who offer the poduct or the service, they engage themselves to do the work to a certain time. If you want to have people’s respect, honor the time and do as you have told. When you promise, count well if you manage and it is better to keep a reserve of some days, to finish before the deadline, than to be late and to compromise your reputation and the relation with people. The Lord Jesus said:

But let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no’; anything beyond these is of evil. (the Gospel of Matthew 5:37)(NASB)

If you don’t respect the time you have engaged to, in this way you give a chance to the Devil to gain from you and to injure your name and the relations with people. You can be the best specialist, but if you don’t respect the appointed time and don’t keep your word, you will suffer only loss.

Don’t be greedy

Greed at the worplace is manifested when one asks more money than his product costs, or, even worse, one asks more money than it has been established at the beginning.

Once, when I visited the church from Istanbul, we went to have a coffee with a friend of mine at a cafe. We looked through the menu and we asked for what we thought it was the cheapest. We were surprised to see that they brought very little food to us, but we were even more suprised when they brought us the bill, where it was written a sum 3 times than we had commanded. When we asked, we were told that they included the tax and the payment for using the dishes, for the tablecloth, etc. We didn’t stay to discuss or to quarrel, because we, compared with them, hold the good name of Christians that we have and we don’t want to compromise our reputation because of money. But, we will never go to that cafe again. And those who acted unjustly will receive the reward according to their greed, as as the Scriptures says:

So are the ways of everyone who gains by violence; it takes away the life of its possessors. (Proverbs of Solomon 1:19)(NASB)

Don’t become arrogant

Some people, especially those who are young, since they have begun to attain success in their job, they become arrogant and, in this way they cut away the branch under their feet. Once I asked for the service of a young programmer to write a certain program to me. I could ask for one who was  more experienced, but I think always to give the possibility to the young men to learn and to rise at their job. When you appeal to a young man’s service and you have patience to help and to teach him, it is a way to water the root, like a tree, so that it may be able to grow up. God says to those who help the young people:

The generous man will be prosperous, and he who waters will himself be watered. (Proverbs of Solomon 11:25)(NASB)

Let us go back to that young man’s story. In the beginning, I had a good attitude and I have always appreciated him and I payed him according to his work. But, since a moment, he started not to do his job in time, to put it off, to find different pretexts and when I asked him for the written code, though we agrred that its price had been included in the first payment, he asked me a good enough price for the code only, without which, the program couldn’t go on. Neither this time I had discussions on this topic, I payed the money, but I told that young man that he didn’t act correctly, that he injured his name and the relations with those who had helped him and that it was not correct before God to act that way. It is interesting that the elder brother of that young man has a beautiful and a very different attitude in his job and in the services that he offers to people. But the young man wants to learn neither from me, nor from his elder brother.

Do you want to attain success in your job and in your relations with people?

• Learn a job well
• Do the work qualitatively
• Do the work in the appointed time
• Don’t be greedy
• Don’t become arrogant

Translated by Djugostran Felicia