We recently celebrated Marisa Reynolds, Senior Vice President – Digital Transformation & Information Technology, and her 25th Service Anniversary with OSB. In true Wonder Woman style, she has taken the time to share her heart, her story, and her wisdom with us in this week’s edition of Beyond The Cupola.
Over the last couple of weeks, I have been thinking about my 25th work anniversary at Oconee State Bank on June 29, 2020. To me, these last twenty five years have been a flash in the pan. My work life spent at the bank equates to a quarter of a century, 2.5 decades, 300 months, 1303 weeks, 9125 days and 219,000 hours. Over half of my lifespan has been spent working at Oconee State Bank. What an achievement, a success, a milestone… many of these words have been used to describe my 25th anniversary.
Let’s talk about these words. What do they mean to you? Defining success can be a bit of irony to most people. Many people who achieve great success don’t always feel it. Literally achievement and success are two different things but you need both of them. Achievement is more of a goal, right? Success is a “state of being”, a feeling you have, right? Achievements are when you pursue and attain WHAT you want. Success is when it is clear that you are in pursuit of WHY you want it.
The drive for SUCCESS is what makes us wake up every morning of the WHY of WHAT we do. Achievements are our milestones. As we look toward a career, we seem to ALWAYS be more confident on WHAT we do (achievements) and over time, those milestones make us “feel good” about ourselves and somewhere along the way we lose sight of WHY we set out to do it to begin with… so don’t let your WHAT make you lose sight of your WHY. Your WHY is the inspiring piece, and when you align your WHY to your WHAT and your HOW… that pretty much gets you to where you want to be. That’s a lot to think about.
So how does this line up with a 25th anniversary story. Take a seat, I need to dig a little bit deeper and share some of my thoughts with a little bit of my story. I cannot remember a time that I was not playing some type of sport or competing in a game – even capture the flag. Pretty much everything I did as a child, teenager, even as a young adult centered around sports, group activities, family, and competition.
I have a memory that surfaced from my high school basketball days. It was half time, I was really having a great game with points, rebounds, steals and assists. I was a very driven and competitive player. The Coach wanted me to claim the school record for most points scored in a game. During his half time speech, he asked everyone to feed me the ball for the second half of the game. I raised my hand and boldly spoke my thoughts. I looked at my Coach and teammates and asked them not to feed me the ball. We would win as team, lose as a team and succeed as a team. If a school record was to be broken, it would happen with us playing as a team. Individual achievements were not WHY I was playing on the team. I refused to accept that type of focus on me individually. I wanted everyone to know that my focus was on our team, our school spirit and the relationship between our team members. I wanted to be the BEST player I could be for our team, however that fit into the play book.
Why do I share this story with you? Passions, values and strengths set the tone for your WHY. Hands down, it will. If you have ever been a competing athlete, a scholar pursuing academic activities, working toward your career and always built yourself on your achievements, then you are probably roaming aimlessly lonely in the world of your pursuits. Whatever you are working toward, you still have to know WHY you are doing it.
So let’s talk about a career and passion… passion is a feeling of intense enthusiasm towards or compelling desire for something. Passion can range from eager interest in or admiration for an idea, proposal, or cause; to enthusiastic enjoyment of an interest or activity; to strong attraction, excitement, or emotion towards something. It is used interchangeably with determination, faith, conviction and love. It can drive you to do things that seem unimaginable. Achieve greatness.
These are some of my passions:
- I have a strong desire to be servant minded and a servant leader.
- I love being a part of something for the greater good.
- Working with a team on a project is invigorating and gratifying.
- When those around me can reach their dreams it brings me joy.
- Coming up with great solutions and processes gives me great satisfaction.
Many of my talents, skills and values were built during my years of being an athlete, which molded my passion over the years. Of course, my mother and father lived out these same values in their daily walk as parents, too. They set a foundation for the good stuff in my heart and with God’s love and forgiveness, I became who I am today. I love teamwork, working toward a common goal, I am a natural leader, I don’t mind working hard to be better, I can manage my time, I want to serve others, I can go on and on… Does that sound like a banker’s job in the field of Digital Transformation and Information Technology?
When I first got into the banking field over 35 years ago, I was looking to find my passion. And then boom, it happened, early on. My passions, my strengths, my values, my WHY, it was aligned…and I work at a community bank. I never saw that coming. I love every week, day, hour, minute and second of it. I continue to be blessed each and every day with the BEST team members and organization that allow me to live out my passions. Thank you Oconee State Bank for the last twenty five years and living my WHY. So much more to come in the years ahead.
In closing, let me share some words of wisdom from the book “Remarkable”:
When it comes to your career, know your strengths. When you take a natural talent and add skills and knowledge, it becomes a strength. FIND something you are passionate about and a cause you believe in. Now you are in your element. Align all of that with an organization that shares your values. When you do, you will likely have found a job from which you’ll never want to retire.
“If you love what you do, you will never work another day in your life.”
~~ Truett Cathy, Founder of Chick Fil A
