Boss' Orders?

I was reading an article in Game Informer's "Classic GI" section, where they were interviewing Tomohiro Nishikado. Now, you might not know who he is, but you've probably heard of and even played his creation many times- Space Invaders.

The article was interesting as Mr. Nishikado explained some of the inspirations and development processes behind this awesome game, but what caught my attention the most was when they asked him about the game's name change.

According to Mr. Nishikado, Space Invaders was going to be named "Space Monsters". A song titled "Monster" was very popular in Japan at the time, and he thought the name would go great with the game.

However, under the order of his boss, he was forced to change the name to Space Invaders. Mr. Nishikado stated, "I was forced to change the title. I was very unhappy about the decision."

This made me think a little about my own experiences and life since returning to corporate America. My dad used to say, "The boss isn't always right, but they are always the boss." I've always tried to live by the saying, and when the time is right I will object and state my opinion, but when the decision is made, even if its not in my favor, I will do the job to the best of my ability as if I had determined to do it that way myself.

Mr. Nishikado, all these years later, lives in the glory of creating a game that was immensely popular. Yet he also remembers his anger about the name getting changed. But from the quality of the game, you can tell he still poured his heart into it, no matter if he was disappointed in one particular aspect that was out of his control.

How does Mr. Nishikado's attitude make you look at yourself and your own job? When a decision is made that doesn't go in your favor, do you just Gump through the job and not put your heart into it? Maybe you even sabotage the project and hope it won't work so you can say you were right? Or do you accept the decision and do the work to the best of your ability and go the extra mile to make it successful?

How you answer those questions will say a lot about yourself and your work ethic.