If you Google “IOM,” you will find that we can be certified in a lot of areas, or belong to a number of groups, not just chamber and association management.
You could be with:
1. The Institute of Occupational Medicine,
2. The Institute for Objective Measurement (whose mission is to bring understanding to measurement),
3. Those who live on the Isle of Man,
4. The Institute of Operating Management,
5. Those undergoing Intra-Operative Monitoring (i.e., testing the integrity of the brain during surgery),
6. Those learning about Inverse Ocean Modeling,
7. The International Organization for Mycoplasmology (don’t ask me), or
8. Those who enjoy eating IOM soybeans (which are full of fiber, high in protein, and genetically modified).
Or, as is the case for most of the readers of this blog post, we could belong to or be interested in the prestigious recognition bestowed by the Institute for Organization Management. For over 100 years, associations and chambers have used the U.S. Chamber’s Institute as a training platform for professional development of their future leaders.
So, I ask again, “what’s in a name?” If you have not added the IOM recognition after your name, I hope you will begin that journey. If you have added the IOM recognition after your name, I would say you could also add these to your resume: accomplishment, development, and success!
And while you’re creating your own definition of success, let me leave you with a definition penned by Ralph Waldo Emerson. He said success is: “To laugh often and much; To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; To appreciate beauty; To find the best in others; To leave the world a little better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; To know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.”
My hope is that, as you make your own choices over time, you will choose in such a way that allows your drive for achievement to be balanced by an equal commitment to love and to play, to family, to friends and community. For nothing, no amount of power or success, is worth more than these.
I hope instead that when you are “old and gray and full of sleep,” as the poet William Butler Yeats once wrote, that you can honestly say your goal in life was not the perfection of work alone but the perfection of a life. I can certainly speak for myself and say that in my pursuit of the perfection of a life, I cannot imagine it without my IOM experience, my IOM family!
I would sum up my Institute journey with my favorite quote from noted anthropologist and sociologist Margaret Mead who said, “Never doubt that small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
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