Isn’t it amazing how there are some things in life that get you bouncing out of bed in the morning ready to take on the world, while other things seem to sap every ounce of your well-being, causing you to fall out of bed and collapse into the day with the largest bucket of coffee you can locate.
We search for the things in life that give us that spark and passion; for many of us this is usually a hobby, sport or other pursuit that consumes us. Some are lucky to find it early in life, and others are still searching. I’ve recently found my passion relatively late in life in the most unlikely of places: running – specifically, trail running.
In the trail running community there are certain things that don’t exist in any other sport that I’ve ever participated in. Here are a few:
Everyone supports everyone else, all the time
This sounds terribly positive, doesn’t it? We understand that what we do is hard, and you cannot improve without sacrifice, pain, effort and commitment. This is why respect is enormous and the cheers are louder for the struggling runner who falls across the finish line after the allowable cut off times than for the elites who finish on the podium.
Sad, negative, angry people don’t get up early to run trails
Seriously, who gets out of bed in the morning angry or flat and goes running for 20km through bushy trails? I’ll tell you who – no one. I haven’t come across an angry trail runner at 7am since I started 3 years ago; there are smiles everywhere.
You develop relationships with enthusiastic, happy people with like-minded goals
It’s almost inevitable. You spend so much time with these people, their positive attitude and inspirational goal setting is addictive to be around. If I miss a Sunday morning run, I miss the opportunity to get my fix of ‘over the top’ happiness for the week.
Now stop for a moment and think about what drives you; what makes you happy?
At Fenwick Software there is an enormous emphasis on company culture. Finding people who fit into our company culture is one of the most important criteria when employing new staff. We genuinely want our staff to be happy, and the recruitment process places a large emphasis on this. “Fitting in” to Fenwick Software does not mean you require a particular back ground. We have proudly employed people from at least 12 countries. Although “fitting in” to Fenwick Software’s company culture initially revolves around having the right aptitude to fill the role, we place a huge focus on searching for good people. People we like. Positive, happy, and enthusiastic people.
