To be truly successful in any industry, you have to ask yourself why you are doing it.
Ask yourself what is your purpose in doing what you do.
If you’re working for an organisation that doesn’t align with your values—maybe it’s damaging the environment, or it’s just a toxic culture—then you are never going to fit in.
Leave. Find your purpose. The rest follows.
When I was starting my business I got burned out and got sick. What helped me recover was working out what my purpose is.
What is it? To turn the industry on its head in terms of having a business that moves towards a more conscious way of operating and creates better performances and projects.
Traditionally the building industry has been quite rigid, pressured and high stress. When I started it was like, ‘You need to do it by this date, push, push, push.’
The world has changed. You can’t operate in that paradigm anymore. Well, you can—I don’t.
I wanted to know what would happen if we took away the stress and rigidity and created an environment where we get the best out of each individual, collaborate at a high level, have optimal creativity, make sure everyone felt heard and understood and was aligned with the project vision.
We’re doing it by valuing the human element.
Let’s say an architect comes to our meeting. He’s working on one of our projects and has 20 other projects on the go. After the meeting he opens his emails and there’s a ton of work not related to our project.
I want to create an environment where that architect goes, ‘Man I love working with MG. I enjoy the meetings; I enjoy going to site.’ Because if he does, he prioritises my project. The work gets done quicker, the issues get solved faster.
It gets everyone in alignment.
I’ve worked on jobs where someone sinks ten million into it and finds the experience super stressful. And I think, why would you spend 18 months being anxious and grumpy?
My mission is for clients investing in projects to actually enjoy it. Part of that is making it flow, reducing stress, making them feel safe and reinforcing that their commercial interests are secure.
Everyone is dealing with so much in their lives at the moment. Whether it is personal issues, kids, work and career or health issues. It’s important that projects are set up in a way that makes them feel supported, puts the projects interests first and ensures the project doesn’t feel like another burden.
It’s all about purpose and if you find the purpose in every project with every client and each consultant, it will make the challenging times a lot easier and the unity with the team stronger.
