It was known as his To Be or To Do - speech. He was talking to his friend Leopold, who was a promising officer in the Pentagon struggling with whether or not he should blow the whistle on the corrupt B-1 Bomber Project that the Air Force brass wanted.
Boyd said, Tiger, one day you will come to the fork in the road, and you are going to have to make a decision on which direction you want to
go.
He then raised his hand and pointed, If you go that way, you can be somebody. You will have to make compromises, and you will have to turn
your back on your friends. But you will be a member of the club, and you will get promoted and you will get good assignments.
Then Boyd raised his other hand and pointed in another direction. Or you can go that way and you can do something -- something for your country and for
your Air Force and for yourself. If you decide you want to do something, you may not get promoted and you may not get good assignments, and you certainly
will not be the favorite of your superiors. But you won't have to compromise yourself. You will be true to your friends and to yourself. And your work may
make a difference.
He paused and stared at Leopold's eyes and heart. To be somebody or to do something.
Boyd's sermon is about choosing a path, choosing whom you are -- a philosophy of life and work. I think many people who work in corporations (particularly the large public corporations) may come to the Y in the road in their careers, and may need to make a decision on whether they should continue to pursue being somebody or refocus themselves on doing something.
If you are motivated to be somebody, then you must do everything possible to get promoted and rise through the ranks. The rewards include lots of money and perks, power, and being included in a very elite club. But getting there extracts a price. By nature, you have to commit to becoming a good politician and making compromises along the way.
In short, you must yield your individualism to the corporate identity. In some cases, you may have to make decisions that offend your standards of morality, or your sense of right and wrong. You are expected to show your loyalty and prove that you are a dedicated company man at all times (if you watched the British Petroleum managers issuing press releases during the Gulf oil spill, you get some idea of how tough this can be).
More importantly, you have to prove your loyalty and dedication to the very people who are already in the club, because they are the ones who will eventually vote you in or out. Getting their support is not just about performance and achievements, they also have to like you and feel comfortable with you, so it is important to get close enough to these people to understand their personalities and biases.
On the other hand, as Colonel Boyd says, you can choose to be a doer. You can focus on finding a job in the organization that is really interesting and allows you to accomplish things that bring you satisfaction. You may have to take a demotion or get stuck in your pay grade, but you will be doing interesting work and maybe even making a big contribution.
Or, you may not find a job that allows you to be a doer in the corporation, and may be forced to look outside or create your own job. The secret is knowing what interests you, or what kind of works brings you satisfaction. If you don't know, you may try an exercise I used many years ago. On a spreadsheet, list all of your interests down a column on the left side of screen. Then list all of your skills in the top row of the spreadsheet. Then find a quiet place to pontificate the connections between skills and interests to see if you can identify a job or some type of work that really interests you.
If you feel you are stuck in a dead-end job or are doing boring work that brings you no satisfaction, then ask your self some off-the-wall questions. Would you like to help other people? Would you rather work at home? Are you a frustrated artist? Do you want to be an inventor and develop your own products? Would you like to teach or train other people?
The best rationalization for being a doer is that we all have to work 30 to 40 years of our life, so why not spend most of the time doing something that is interesting? Another important factor is Boyd's comment that if you choose to be a doer, you won't have to compromise yourself. If you reject the idea of being someone and choose to be a doer, the chances of compromising your principles, honor, integrity and honesty are much lower.