Where Do You See Yourself in 5 Years?

I make intentions,

I think over,

And I break them,

In the fear of what will happen.

The Gardener was useless. I had to do everything by myself. I asked him to clean the Autumn mess.

“I want that corner of the garden.”

He listened carefully and then apparently got to work.

“Sir, it’s done.” The gardener.

And when you recheck his done job. It’s always half done even more carefully.

“I want that corner of the garden.”

Then you jump into details and instruct the gardener in a harsh manner. Except you don’t twist his ears.

“I want that corner of the garden.”

………………………………………………………………………………

“Where do you see yourself in 5 years?”

“mmm…mmm!”

“How was your interview?”

“I do not know the answer of this question.” I told my friend the problem after interview.

“What question?”

“Where do you see yourself in 5 years?”

“Say anything to avoid the trap.” For my friend, if there is any problem then it’s only in one’s head who is facing the problem. It does not exist in reality.

“What anything?” I asked with irritation.

“Like you will take over the company.”

“I will take over this company.” I took my friend’s advice in the next interview and the person there got scared.

“How?” The HR person asked me in a little bit of horror.

“mmm…mmm…” And my reply made me embarrassed and showed me the exit door of the company as usual.

“How to cater this HOW?” I wanted to kill my friend because he was taking my issue non-seriously.

“What how?” he asked me this question with a blunt face and I told him what happened over the

interview.

“How will I take over the particular company?” I asked him again.

“You don’t say that exactly instead you should have said that, I see myself as a market leader. And if you give me this opportunity you will see me emerging as one.” My friend said those lines with a smile.

“And if he asks me about my strategy?” I tried to use my vocabulary in front of my friend to get the answer.

“I suggest you to stay honest. Don’t become someone you are not. You don’t have a strategy.” My friend gave up on me.

“I don’t think that far.” I tried to come up straight in my next interview.

“Why?” The HR asked in astonishment.

“When the time will come, I’ll see what options do I have and where should I go.” I felt like I have achieved the motto.

“What are your interests?”

And those interests of mine never worked in that interview. Once again, I asked my friend:

“What are they exactly looking in a person during the interview?”

“Nothing, you just have to cheat them. With brains. In fact, with bullshit. The more you speak bullshit in good words the more easily you can cheat. The good the cheater you are, the more they are comfortable with you. And finally you get the good news.” My beloved friend winked at me. After watching and listening to him, I felt like he is one of those HR guys.

I decided to stick to what I was doing up till now during the interviews. After a while I went for another interview where the person was less cruel. In fact, he wasn’t cruel at all. After taking my interview or you can say he just had a good conversation with me, he referred me to another guy and said:

“Meet him. Just take my name.”

I went straight to the referred person and he revealed the secret of the question where do you see yourself in 5 years?

“Where do you see yourself in 5 years is just to check whether you are a person with a Vision in life or you are a person who just wants a job to fulfill the formality, to eat, sleep and drink with big money.”

“What’s wrong in that?”

“Everything. You should be clear about your life. Plus, with that attitude you can only dream of big money, and in reality you might become a beggar.”

“Can you come up with an example?” I asked him the question with a stubborn face. I really did not like what he said.

“Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). He had a Vision; of how the whole humanity can be saved from going in to Hell. And how everyone can be guided to the path of Heaven. Our Prophet worked all His life over this Vision.”

I could not blink my eyes for a while when he said those lines.

“You can take the example of Abdul Sattar Edhi in the present time.” I kept looking at him.

“And also Hakeem Muhammad Saeed, who established Hamdard Dawa Khana.” I could not say a word.

“Only 5% human beings in this world are born with a Vision. They are Natural Born Visionaries. If you are not one of them, then you should work on having ONE. A clear picture of what you want. I’m teaching Principles of Strategic Visions in this institute. You can join for free.”

That time I ran away from him. But, the concept of Vision, that word Vision, was something new to me. I asked few of my friends to know if they have a Vision or not?

“Where do you see yourself in 5 years?”

“I would like to see myself go up the ladder and progress in the organization. Get rich and diverse hands on experience which will benefit me and the organization in the time to come. Get exposure of as many departments and business lines as possible so that I may have a better understanding, which will enable me to make my inputs for the betterment of a company.”

“Where do you see yourself in 5 years?”

“Canada.”

“I don’t know I’m tired of my profession here.”

“As far as this question is concerned, it depends on person to person.”

“Where do you see yourself in 5 years?”

“Happily married with two children.”

“Where do you see yourself in 5 years?”

“In 5 year time, I want to see myself at a role that offers me more power in decision making and lets me exercise more control while at the same time I want to be a source of spreading knowledge by passing my experiences on to the people working beneath me. My current goal is to learn as much as I can and only knowledge and learning will give me wisdom to see myself where I want to be in 5 year time.”

“Where do you see yourself in 5 years?”

“May be somewhere out of this country.”

“Where do you see yourself in 5 years?”

“I will set up three businesses, locally and internationally.”

At least my friends got something. Though they were not Visionary.

I got tired of this question. In my next interview I lost my temper over this question that was asked with a little difference:

“Where you will be in 5 years?”

“Are you still stuck to this question? This question has become obsolete.”

“Who told you it has become obsolete?”

“You guarantee my life for the next 5 years, I’ll give you an answer.”

The interview went real bad and after facing too many destructions in my efforts, I decided to workout over Visions. I joined the workshop. Over there I came to know that for the whole time I was only worried about a drop of water:

“let me tell you one thing clearly. It is not a career oriented workshop, as many people perceive that way. It is completely about your life. Career is just a part of it. We are just here to remind you how to achieve excellence in each department of your life. Realize what roles we all have and at what level those roles should be performed. Vision is all about covering all the departments of life. Personal, Family and Professional. Look at every department of life comprehensively because lack of knowledge, leads to wrong priorities.

Shape a great Vision. Your very own Vision. Because if you don’t, someone else surely will. Don’t become a victim of someone else’s Vision. In doing so, you must remember, all is not fine without a clear Vision. First lay the foundation, then start with the efforts.

Those who say they don’t know what they want; they definitely know what they don’t want.

So the things is,

When you don’t know where you want to go; then you surely end up there where you never wanted to go, where you never wanted to be.

Resources don’t matter. Create them. Explain yourself the main idea and divide the Visions into number of years. Like if the Vision is of 50 years, then break it down for your ease. Your time, your money, your life; all you need is greatness to proceed in your Vision.

By the end of this workshop you will get to know your:

Vision, what do you want?

The Purpose of Vision, Why do you want it?

And the Strategy, How are you going to achieve it?

You must and you should remember that your particular Vision must and should be based upon

a Sound Ideology.”

After attending the 3 day workshop of Visions I realized very strongly that why up till now I have wasted my life in running after all those things just because the rest of the world is running after them. I never ever worked upon my Vision and so, I considered myself as a Non-Visionary Person (NVP). And when you’re one, trust me it’s very sad. It becomes impossible to get up early every morning for anything. Even if you have to deal with your gardener, it will be a very big deal then because, the gardener will never listen to you instead, he will pay attention to those who are Visionary.

The gardener was useless. I had to do everything by myself. I asked him to clean the Autumn mess.

“I want that corner of the garden.”

He listened carefully and then apparently got to work.

“Sir, it’s done.” The gardener.

And when you recheck his done job. It’s always half done even more carefully.

“I want that corner of the garden.”

Then you jump into details and instruct the gardener in a harsh manner. Except you don’t twist his ears.

“I want that corner of the garden.”

And when you are done with the soul killing experience you get back to those who were also with you during that whole time you were busy instructing the gardener.

“Why do you want that corner of the garden?” I replied to my nephew who asked me the third time about that corner of the garden. The gardener was very keen in providing him that corner.

“I want to plant a tree over there.”

“We will…” That was the gardener.

“Why do you want to plant a tree in that corner? I asked my nephew that question and when he replied in a very determined tone, I got the point in an instant why the gardener was halfheartedly cleaning the Autumn mess and why he was showing keen interest in providing my nephew that corner.

The little world was Visionary, unlike me and that was the Power of Vision. Though, the Vision was not based upon Sound Ideology.

“Because that corner is safe for a tree to grow money instead of leaves.”

 ……………………………………………………….

“Where do you see yourself in 5 years?”

“I’ll let you know but first you need to inform me with:

What is the Vision of this Company?

The Purpose of that Vision?

How is this Company going to achieve that Vision?

On what Ideology the Company’s Vision is based upon?

And in the next 5 years where does this Company see itself?

The HR guy could not blink his eyes for quite a while when I said those lines.