What is a Professional ?
Everyone these days wants
to think of themselves as a "professional".
Only so many are. To wear a suit does not make one
a professional. It's not just role playing behind
the facade of a fancy office.
Over the last 10 years,
everyone jumped on the professional bandwagon. It
seems like there's a trend to "out professionalize" the
next guy. Once the word became fashionable, it really
took over as everyone tried to use it to distinguish
themselves from... everyone else. It's sometimes
interpreted as a matter of equipment - as in "a
real pro has all the latest tools". As if the
goods made the difference. Perhaps the dress, the
vehicle, the speech, the training or the place of
birth defines the pro. Or maybe it's the haircut.
There probably are those
among us who believe that these things make the person.
The better the suit, the fancier the tie....the better
the school...the fancier the car. The accouterments
of the material mind. We like to see these things
in those we engage for an important service because
it's easier to judge the cover than read the book,
but are they the defining quality ? I'm not going
to tell you what I think defines a professional until
the end and I hope they put it on another page so
you can't look quick.
I've met people who raked
my yard who were more professional than others who
handled million dollar deals. Taxi drivers who outranked
doctors in terms of quality. People of low station
delivering noble standards. We all have. This is
not a slur on anyone in particular, I'm talking about
form vs. substance. One sometimes masquerades as
the other. Sometimes both are present but not always,
and not always in whom you would expect.
Okay, Okay, here's the
corny part: A professional doesn't care about him
or herself, they care about you. Easy words to say,
tough to live out on Monday morning. A pro is thinking
above and beyond the paycheck, beyond the momentary
issues and is focused on the long run, the issues
of your life that are so hard to separate and deal
with objectively . A professional can handle the
intangibles that seem so complicated to us without
becoming entangled in the emotions which so easily
beset us in dealing with once in a lifetime events.
But it's kind of like they operate on your blind
spot without anesthesia, they can only do it if you
let them.
There's also a certain
undefinable thing called heart that comes into play
in a true professional and people can tell when the
heart is present, and they call tell when it is not.
Maybe it's time we dusted off a few corny old words
like character, calling and sincerity.
Atty. Thomas N. George
defines the professional as follows: "It is
the conscientious dedication to duty first, with
the goal of successfully completing your mission
while being fair and honorable throughout the process
and treating both your client and opponent with respect
for who they are".
