On Work (a supplemental)

(Written this for two reasons.  First, I feel the urge.  Second…well, there is no second.)

By work is meant the investment of one’s time, energy, intellect and skill to produce an outcome - presumably of value that can be traded.  In most cases for pecuniary income usable as a means of personal and family support, desires and self-esteem.  In other words - a life’s work.

As I threaten 80 and death becomes no longer a rumor, I reflect on the subject of work more often.  I have had the good fortune (some would say - blind luck) to experience a modest plethora of careers.  Multiple disciplines and spaces.  From consulting to concrete.  From healthcare to sports, even a stint in waste management – and a few others.  Turned out some were even profitable! Several others? Not so much.

Along the way I have formed views about work – what matters and doesn’t.  What is important and not.  Here are some.

Do Your Best

Always do the best you can.  If a man pays you a dollar, give him a buck and a quarter’s worth of output.  Why do most things at all, if not well?  If you can’t give your very best, find something where you can.

A Wonderful Elixir

Work can be a wonderful elixir.  Done to ability’s best, work is one of life’s greatest satisfactions, while also an outlet.  For boredom, frustration, sadness, even grief.  To assuage bouts of self-loathing and, yes, just to fill idle spaces.

Go Wide

Seek broadening experience, especially when young…very young.  Some of life’s best lessons come from summer jobs.  Do multiple jobs when you are young.  Like a teenager.  Today young people are caught up in so many other things, I wonder if summer jobs even exist.  Summer jobs teach things… like making your own money and having it to spend.  Doing jobs you despise and, thereby, know you’d never do again.  Getting up early and working all day.  Pleasing perhaps amazing your employer.

Be Humble. Be Honest.

Along the way, get in the habit of saying “I don’t know”.  Truly a great practice.  It disarms, avoids being stamped a BS artist and importantly avoids mistakes, wasted resources, perhaps calamities, based on wrong information and spurious generalities.  Even better…learn to say, “I don’t know, but I know how to find out.”  Just not every time.

Get Better

Adopt a continuous improvement mentality.  Even if you don’t particularly enjoy a job, think about improving outcomes through better ways of doing things.  Time invested in one’s creativity to invent “a better way” can add interest and enthusiasm to tasks otherwise mundane.

Most Importantly

NOTHING beats liking your work (except maybe winning a giant Powerball. Well, definitely winning the big one).  Think about it.  Although not evident to the young, the time, energy and effort one has to invest is finite.  Indisputably exhaustible.  Capacity diminishes with age and then runs out.  Eventually age and work become unfriendly.

Ipso facto - why invest in something you despise or even tolerate?  At some point one may have no choice but not at first.  Success and the rewards you reap will come faster and in greater abundance when you derive true pleasure from the work you choose.

Over the years I have worked with far too many colleagues and even partners who just went through the motions.  Couldn’t wait for the day to end or the weekend to come...so they could fill their evenings and weekends watching sporting events on TV about which they cared little.  I call such -  “TGIF” souls.  For the most part, I parted company soon after their true motivation became obvious.  In fact, I made a promise relatively early on to avoid partners altogether when it came to career choices.

Now don’t get me wrong.  In each case these were competent individuals and, in no way, dishonest.  Work just didn’t float their boat.  They didn’t love the work they did and so they did as little of it as they could.  To this day, although largely retired, I still sleep with a pad and ever larger red marker next to me.  I still wake up with thoughts about how to improve some “thing” or the other, which I must write down if ever I hope to fall asleep again.  Why?  Not because I am some kind of workaholic, although I think the term unfairly pejorative.  No, it’s because I fully enjoy finding new ways to do things better.

In general, work that involves capacious leisure is rarely satisfying.  I truly believe this.  The luckiest are those for whom the line between work and pleasure has been rubbed out.

Assured little risk of contradiction, I can promise life is much more satisfying (and likely lucrative) when work is found that makes one a “TGIM” kind of person.  Few achieve lasting success or fulfillment trapped doing work they can barely tolerate.

Even when reaching an age where one has enough fruit so as not to labor, it is wise to invest in things that require work, albeit on one’s own terms.  Energy, intellect, creativity.  Spending countless hours watching teams about which you care not a whit play a meaningless game or flowers grow is neither good for one’s self esteem nor mental acuity.

A famous person whose name I can’t recall once said…Work unloved is slow death, day by day.

One should guard life’s hours as lions at the gate.

Yes...work is work. But it can be fun and it sure is life.

Become a TGIM person if you can.