Passion Breeds Success

I was working on a new PM Lecture today. This one is by Jack Ferraro, PMP and it is going to be on Project Leadership. (It will probably be available early next month.)

As I was going through this training content, I was not only amazed at how applicable it is, but also at how much of what Jack teaches reflects my personal attitude towards our profession: Responsibility, passion, a desire to make a positive impact and above all a service based approach to my customer's needs.

This got me thinking and I started rummaging through my old letters of reference... wasn't there something somewhere to exactly that end? It didn't take me long to find it. Here are a few sentences taken from a fabulous letter of reference that a customer of mine sent to a prospective employer here in the USA:

[...] I would say, his biggest strength is, that he feels hundred percent responsible for his job, the company he works for and the customer. I never met this attitude from a service provider again. Maybe you don't believe it, but I can't mention any weakness. I am sure, our good experience with his company was mainly based on the skills for project management of Cornelius Fichtner. [...]

So based on nearly 20 years of experience as a project manager, here is how a junior PM can not only make a difference on a project but also a name for him-/herself

• Be passionate about your job
• Take responsibility of the task given to you
• Don't look at it as your job. It's your calling
• Go the extra mile and make the customer happy
• Drive every issue to a beneficial solution
• Be ready to bend the rules for your customer (and tell the customer that you did)
• Smile