I was at a retirement celebration for a customer of mine on Wednesday evening. Along with this ladies her very impressive 40 year business career, her impact in community shows the great things people can do with their lives outside of their 9-5 jobs.
On the subway ride home, I'm thinking to myself, I'm almost half-way through my career (that is if I retire at the ripe of age 65), so what will people say about moi.
I'm not expecting to necessarily have a huge business successes of someone like this person, or even as large an impact on the community, but one thing she said gave me a little hope that my work life is more than just a way to earn a living, keeping your brain active or even providing some value to your customers. She said that the most important thing from her work life that she'll remember is all the great people she met and worked with !
This however, raises a few questions for me (working in a remote office*) or for people who work as sole proprietors. Are the relationships we have with our local customers become as valued as the work colleague ? It also raises the question of whether you should make friends or build strong relationships with people you work with.
This event also reminded me of my father's retirement last year. Without getting too personal, one thing that I said in my congratulatory speech was how he was a man who truly loved his work. And then, relating back to what I heard this week from this lady, was how work ultimately has become her life. This however seems to go against the principles of working to live ! But you can't argue, that to get the most out of this short life, enjoying your work makes it all the more better.
I find that hearing about the joy of their working worlds when people retire, provides some inspiration in my life. I enjoy my work, I can honestly say I consider many people I've worked with as friends and I'm certain I'll look back on the past and have very fond memories of the cast of characters I've worked with. Maybe a few will remember me when it's all over as well.
* business term, a remote office is an office in a separate city from HQ, normally dedicated to local sales activities and usually only having a handful of non-conforming-like staff. It is not remote in the sense of the outback, Siberia or the Arctic. Quite the opposite, the remote office is quite often situated in downtown urban areas.
2 comments:
Hey Bro.
This is a really interesting topic, one which I have revisited a number of times over the last decade.
Loving what you do appears to be a complex matter, at least for me. When I was young, I made jobs out of all my interests, working at the bicycle shop because I liked riding, and teaching tennis because I loved the sport. However, It wasn't long after these jobs began that I started to resent them, and soon after that I quit both the job and the interest.
When I finally found my true calling... making art... I pursued it with full vigor, and after graduating took a job that again blurred the line between personal interest and work. Is it any suprise then that I left that career 8 years later? That might not be fair, as the ending of that career in itself was complicated, but my feelings were clear, I had started to resent making art, and thus teaching it to others.
My new career is entirely different, and in some ways has broken my pattern. I do not necessarily enjoy woodworking, but I do like my job. I have found a new interest.... business, or even more specific, trying to make money.
I have many amateur woodworker friends who envy my carreer, and perhaps THAT is the difference.
I wish I had kept making art, and envied those that were professors without ever becoming one, perhaps then the longing and envy would have kept me interested, perhaps I would still be an artist. For me, loving your work is important, but loving your interest's is king.
I tried being defined by a career and failed, now I am trying to be defined by the things my career affords me.
In conclusion, my theories on the matter are erased each night Carolyn returns from work fullfilled, happy, and motivated by a career she pursued from childhood, because she loved to draw and design... go figure!
Dick
Thanks for sharing some personal insights Bro, and so well put together !
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