“To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing be nothing” — Aristotle.

The forgoing aphorism depicts the reality of how individuals and corporate leaders can make progress or derail in social and economic relations. Though, the founder of the peripatetic school made this proposition several hundreds of years ago, the truth of the idea remains sacrosanct in modern corporate ecosystem.

Many business ideas have been stillborn due to unfettered fear of failure or fear of the unknown often characterized by leaders who are supposed to be agile and proactive with respect to decision making. It cannot be emphasized enough that failure is an integral part rather than an antithesis of success.

Companies or corporate organizations exist to solve market frictions. This invariably involve taking risks. Hence, scholars have proposed that for organizations to continue to be the harbinger of innovation and the advancement of humanity, they need to resist doing nothing at all despite the risks involved in the creative process.

Speaking on the relationship between failure and successful execution of innovative ideas, Stanford University’s Robert Sutton suggests that inaction is far worse than failure. “Failure, after all, implies some sort of output”.

Since the quality of innovation is intrinsically linked to quantity of ideas whether those ideas initially becomes successful or fail, it is suggested that employing metrics based on quantity of ideas and equally rewarding an idea whether successful or not would provide greater incentive for innovation. Examples of such metrics include how many prototypes built, patents filed, papers published, projects completed, etc.

On how organizations could reward failure, Sutton recommend the following:

• Make sure people are aware that failure to execute new ideas is their greatest failure and that it will bring about consequences.
• Make certain everyone learns from past failures; do not repeatedly reward the
same mistakes.
• If people show low failure rates, be suspicious. Perhaps they are not taking enough risks, or maybe they are hiding their mistakes, rather than allowing others in the organization to learn from them.
• Hire people who have had intelligent failures where lessons have been extracted that enabled subsequent success. Let others in the organization know that’s one reason they were hired.

Resource:

Hugo Campus (Editors). 2021. The Innovation Revolution in Agriculture: A Roadmap to a Value Creation. Springer

One of the finest moments I had in the US semiconductor industry  was the option to pick my job title. Provided you do not go with CEO, President* and Director*, you could go creative. I went with Global Lead ASIC Designer because I managed people in Japan, India, China, USA and Canada; the boring official title in the system was Design Engineer IV.  My boss had Design Engineer V.

Over time, I have realized that the flexible title option in business works. I confess that my transition to Carnegie Mellon University was boosted by that job title.

That brings my note today: when you throw money to him/her to join that startup and nothing is working, upgrade the title. Yes, that can change the outcome. We have done that in our startups and the results are evidential: “the same terms, as noted, we have upgraded this role from Manager, Engineering to Director, Engineering”. That can also work for you.

Before you tell me that it does not work, let me remind you that my last title in Diamond Bank was “Banking Executive” even though it was largely a low level management track level. But no matter how you see it, Ndubuisi was a banking executive!

Many firms in the US allow workers to pick their titles with CEO, president and director reserved. The key is to be smart about it. My last title in Diamond Bank was “Banking Executive”. People, “I am a banking executive with Diamond Bank”. It is now left for you to figure out that before you is a NON-Executive and nowhere near the last floor! Yes, banks are very creative with those titles; learn from them.

Beyond Job Title

There should be no confusion on the Job Title. Job title is not everything. If you graduate with a bachelor of engineering degree, and a bank offers you N230k monthly to be a clerk, choose that job over a small uninspiring engineering company that gives you Director of Engineering title, but pays N90k.

But as soon as you pick that bank job, do not stop there. Use the extra funds to begin your master’s degree in engineering or deepen your professional certifications and qualifications. After some years, begin to replot back to engineering. Now, better options will be open for great technical companies.

My call is this: avoid career purity at the early stage of your career while in Nigeria (this is different if in US for example. There are many options in US). It is better to earn better and use the resources to fund your long-term ambitions and aspirations, than getting into those aspirations early and stall at the bottom, because you are unable to earn decent enough to improve your skills, in a company with limited resources to develop you.

I picked banking because I was told that the US embassy gave bankers visas when compared to other disciplines during my time as a new graduate. I knew I wanted to study engineering at the PhD level in the US. 

“In other words, grab the job paying good money early, but don’t take your eyes off the ball, then use your extra ‘change’ to fund your next job. If you must miss out on your dream job, never miss out on the fatter cheque, if the opportunity arises”. – Francis Oguaju

Comment on Feed

Comment: but Ndubuisi Ekekwe don’t allow us in Nigeria to misuse this ooo, sometimes I see some people’s title and salary, then it begins to look as if the Title is INVERSELY PROPORTIONAL TO SALARY.
I think title really works and motivates fresh graduates straight out of university otherwise it might not move some people if the pay doesn’t correlate.
now we see former bank managers are now truck drivers and fruit pickers in UK and Canada

My Response: If you graduate with BEng and get a job in a bank as a clerk and they pay you N190K, take it over to a small engineering company where they pay you N90k with the Director of Engineering title. But do not relax on that bank job. Use that money to fund your master’s degree in Engineering. Then, in years, you can return back to Engineering at a higher level (can now enter Shell, etc). That is how to do it and what we tell young people to do.

Comment 2: Yes, thank you for this insightful piece Ndubuisi Ekekwe . Not everyone is easily motivated with high pay. Some simply want other stuff that fuels their passion. The Maslow hierarchy of needs come into mind today. Thank you for your intellectual engagement online

Comment 3: Professor Ndubuisi Ekekwe ..It is not that straight. I have loads of examples that got themselves into this situation, Engineering degrees but working in banks. 5 years after, these banks sack them, they cannot claim to be bankers for wants of relevant certifications and enough experience and are not competent to be referred to an engineers due to lack of relevant experiences. In my profession, those that start with small accounting firms on what you called “peanuts” come out better in 5- 10 year career experiece than most who got to bank and the industries straight from school with “Fat” salary. There is no one size fits all approach..peope should.just decide what they want and follow it through.

My Response: You distorted my post and answered a separate question. Plot the matrix of bank executives and CEOs in Nigeria, check how many have ICAN, CFA or broad certifications. Statistically, if you work in a small accounting firm where you cannot even save to take ICAN, you will lag behind someone who worked in banking and has money to write that exam. As I wrote “But as soon as you pick that bank job, do not stop there” – if that person listens to that and uses that extra income to fund ICAN, CFA, etc, he will outperform that guy packing experience with no certifications in 10 years. 

Comment 4: Stop following the money and follow your passion. That is how you build your future and your nation’s future

My Response: “Stop following the money and follow your passion.” is more relevant for entrepreneurs and founders, not professionals seeking jobs. There would not be LinkedIn if employers did not start firing people decades ago recklessly. In the age of lifetime employment, resumes were classified documents. But when employers changed the game, the people revolted and posted resumes online. You cannot follow your passion when you have no capacity to create the future as a worker. 

Only entrepreneurs or founders or owners do that. We need to be sure that we’re NOT picking quotes made for founders for employees. Amazon fired 18,000 today – tell those men and women to continue coding even if there is an opportunity to earn income by doing some sales job while they look for a new coding job.

Comment 4R: i disagree entirely with your comment.

Please do not ever try to tell me that you encourage people to go and do jobs for the mere sake of work and whatever they can earn from it and not because they are passionate about what the job they want to do?

If that is the level that Nigeria has sunk to then there is even less hope than even I thought possible. I really thought better of Nigeria and its people.

My Response: You refused to respond to the thesis of my posts. Let us leave Nigeria here and focus on the topic.  We exaggerate passion at work because it gives a soundbite. That guy who picks your garbage has a passion for collecting garbage or that man who maintains security in that dangerous night club enjoys being a guard. Or that guy who earns $4 per hour picking potatoes in Alabama. Humans are the same – Nigerians, Americans, etc. What differs is the environment. We debate here and I welcome your perspective.