Matthew Gates 5m 1,166 #threequestions
The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.
Asking These Three Questions Answers Everything
Have you ever worked for a company that counted every penny? Did you ever work for a company that made you clock out to tinkle or poo? Do you own a business and run a tight hold on finances to the point where it punishes your own employees? There are always just three questions you need to ask to assess whether the situation can be fixed or not.
It can determine whether to fire an employee or whether the situation itself is a career you should get into. These three questions are the biggest stressors for any company in operation. For most companies, only the first question is ever truly the most important. However, for other industries, such as law enforcement or healthcare or even government, all questions can sometimes have a yes and rarely ever have a no. For other industries, however, the first question is often the only one that gets asked, and therefore might be considered a career with the least amount of stress.
When asking these questions, if the answer is yes, you are choosing to live with the major consequences of some action that took place, and has the potential to cause a traumatic experience for you. The three questions asked can all be related to one another and two technically have to do with the human body and human life, whereas the first question may or may not be related to the other two questions, but all are just as equally important.
If the answer is yes to one of them, the only one that can potentially still be fixed is the first question, whereas the other two questions may mean that the damage done was permanent and cannot be undone. Unfortunately, for all the questions asked, there are times where none of them can ever be undone.
How do you determine whether you want to pursue a particular career or not? How do you determine whether you should be stressed out about the situation or not? Most of us do not stress over things that are very temporary. The television may show annoying commercials and so we mute it for 2 to 3 minutes, or we only watch Netflix and avoid it altogether, and we move on with our lives. Other issues are more permanent, such as a breakup or a divorce, or the loss of someone or something.
The best way to determine your career is through the process of elimination with three questions. How I determined what career I would be comfortable in is by asking those three questions, that can only be answered with YES or NO. I was studying to be a nurse in college…. and well, the answer to those questions is sometimes YES, and I realized.. nursing was not for me. I started to go into law enforcement… possibly to be a police officer or a sheriff…. same thing… same questions, I realized, being a police officer wasn’t for me. I worked at a very popular retail store and I had seen so many ways the company was losing money, and when I suggested how to fix the leaks, but was only rewarded with punishment, I had realized the answer to at least one of those questions was YES, and I could no longer work for that company knowing what I knew.
So what questions do you need to ask yourself on whether you should stress about something or not? Or even determining the career you want to pursue? The questions you can ask yourself, your boss, your company, or even establish it as a philosophy are:
- Did we lose A LOT of money?
- Did anyone get hurt?
- Did anyone die?
If the answer is NO to all three of these, it can be fixed, and everything is going to be okay. Losing a lot of money can mean devastation for everyone involved and the downfall of any company, even governments. In the case where the answer is YES, there can be solutions that solve the money problem, which often means coming up with plans of action to stop losing money and to make money. Money is just money: it is replaceable and it can be printed. There can be a lot of it or none of it and while it may hurt not to have any of it, but it usually does not mean it is the end.
In answering the second question, if someone was hurt, then this can mean devastation and even downfall for any company or persons involved. With being hurt comes the liability, the insurance, and the payout, for getting hurt. Someone who is hurt or got hurt on the job usually means that the company was not following safe practices, allowing workers to not follow safe practices, or overlooking certain practices that would be considered unacceptable. It can damage the reputation of a company and cost millions of dollars to fix, ultimately leading back to the first question.
Finally, we have the final question, for which there is no way to truly compensate, even if there is monetary compensation, to undo this type of damage. There is no amount of apologies or money that can make this last thing right ever again. This is the death of someone and in some industries, death is a common occurrence and seen everyday, particularly in nursing and law enforcement. We could say government as well, in which souls are sold everyday, technically causing the death of someone who is not themselves anymore, but we will stay out of politics for this confession. Death is permanent and leads back to the first two questions, because not only does it involve losing a lot of money, but it causes hurt for more than just the person involved.
Some industries do not get the privilege of saying NO to all three. Not every career has the privilege of saying NO, and it can and usually does take its toll on the person or persons involved including their families. If you have the privilege to say NO to all three, it usually means that you can find a more stress-free career, job, or path. It also means that if you are the manager, boss, or running your own company, if you can answer NO to all three, then you probably should not stress out as much as you do.
Using this method of the three questions can save a lot of hassle, save a lot of strained relationships, save someone’s employee status, and prevent a lot of unnecessary concerns and anxiety. By asking these three questions, after taking a deep breath, you will understand that in almost all circumstances when it comes to life, it is going to work out and everything is going to be okay. Try to live a life where you have the privilege of answering NO in your career and even in your personal life. It is the best way to start living a stress-free life.
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