Why are you working?
Someone asked an interesting question on Linkedin: "What do you think of the statement, 'Everything a man does in life, he does for his ideal woman.'"
I offered the following answer:
Ayn Rand, who inspired and mentored Alan Greenspan, was of the view that all women -- subconsciously or not -- engaged in "hero worship." She herself admitted she was into hero worship, and this is reflected in her novels.
One could then surmise that all men -- subconsciously or not -- want to become heroes. That is, strong, reliable, heroic, self-sacrificing, for the sake of a loved one, whether it's a woman or a baby.
I say "self-sacrificing" but in fact, the small self is abandoned for a higher, bigger Self.
It may be true that a man will be driven to become his very best for the particular woman he's madly in love with, and most men who have been in love will recognize the truth of that statement.
But there's something more subtle at play here. The "best" woman -- and usually, this type of woman is adored by all men -- is the one who can invoke emotions in a man. Men in society are not very encouraged nor supported in their quest for feeling and expressing emotions, so this is why men tend to like and love women who are passionate and can invoke their often deep-seated emotions.
In other words, a man feels alive around a woman who is passionate and is emotionally intelligent enough to activate and sustain his emotional vitality. This emotional vitality is, incidentally, what he needs in order to become a great creator and create amazing and surprising things in life.
So although one can say that a man does great things FOR his ideal woman, one could also say that without his ideal woman, he would not be able to do great things.
===
The success secret here is to understand that by basing one's work on something "ideal" or of great value (to oneself and/or to society), one's senses and intellect become dramatically sharpened.
This heightened sensitivity or awareness or capability, enable the person to do things that ordinary people cannot.
For example, Hernando de Soto, the great economist who wrote the book The Mystery of Capital, is probably very driven in his work BECAUSE he realizes how important this theories and methodologies are in helping millions of people get out of poverty.
There are many examples, such as Dr Yunus Muhammed, who won the Nobel Prize for his micro-credit innovation. Al Gore is yet another example.
How does all this apply to you? After all, you're probably not trying to win the Nobel Prize!
The key question here is to ask yourself WHY what you're doing is so important. To whom is it important to?
Most people make the mistake of looking for a job, that is, they focus on the WHAT, not the WHY.
Why should an employer hire you? Why is your work so important? Whom does it impact?
When I created a marketing firm called Major Force in 2000, I created a slogan that captured WHY our work (I had an associate who specialized in graphic design) was so important.
"Major Force. We communicate your value."
Our work was super important because we helped clients to clearly communicate their value to the marketplace, to clients, to investors, to employees, to all stakeholders in fact. If they did not clearly communicate their value to clients, they would be extremely vulnerable to price wars.
We charged $5,000 to $10,000 for a logo that was as small as two inches by two inches!
Today, I run Talentelle.com, and my philosophy is similar: our work is super important because our mission is to "help women discover and develop their talent into a fulfilling career or exciting business."
Talentelle started out in February 2006 as a local training firm, but is now becoming a global player offering ALL women on this planet the opportunity to connect to our various systems and benefit from our online, digital or virtual solutions.
We used to offer workshops accommodating a maximum of 20 people in a physical classroom, but now have moved to the Internet and can potentially serve 3 billion women. Of course, only about one billion people are currently connected to the Internet, so we can only realistically serve 500 million women -- which is still a big market!
Anyways, my point is that the secret of success is to think big and to imagine WHY your work is so important.
I browse through profiles of Linkedin users and boy, I can tell you that most people don't feel very important at their job. Every job has the potential to change the world, it's just that people don't view things that way.
Instead, they think, "Ah, it's just a job. I get excited in the evenings or during week-ends, when I have the freedom to do what I love."
That's a huge mistake and a big error of judgment because one's job is actually the BIGGEST part of one's life. It's forty years times 250 days, or 10,000 days of work. That's 100,000 hours of work!
So basically, you can have 100,000 hours of happiness and joy, or 100,000 hours of silent pain, mind-numbing drudgery and muted suffering. It's really up to you.
To sum it up, let me share with you the title of a book by the overcommercialized guru Ashram, played by Mike Myers in the movie The Love Guru: "Does it hurt when you do that? Don't do that."
I offered the following answer:
Ayn Rand, who inspired and mentored Alan Greenspan, was of the view that all women -- subconsciously or not -- engaged in "hero worship." She herself admitted she was into hero worship, and this is reflected in her novels.
One could then surmise that all men -- subconsciously or not -- want to become heroes. That is, strong, reliable, heroic, self-sacrificing, for the sake of a loved one, whether it's a woman or a baby.
I say "self-sacrificing" but in fact, the small self is abandoned for a higher, bigger Self.
It may be true that a man will be driven to become his very best for the particular woman he's madly in love with, and most men who have been in love will recognize the truth of that statement.
But there's something more subtle at play here. The "best" woman -- and usually, this type of woman is adored by all men -- is the one who can invoke emotions in a man. Men in society are not very encouraged nor supported in their quest for feeling and expressing emotions, so this is why men tend to like and love women who are passionate and can invoke their often deep-seated emotions.
In other words, a man feels alive around a woman who is passionate and is emotionally intelligent enough to activate and sustain his emotional vitality. This emotional vitality is, incidentally, what he needs in order to become a great creator and create amazing and surprising things in life.
So although one can say that a man does great things FOR his ideal woman, one could also say that without his ideal woman, he would not be able to do great things.
===
The success secret here is to understand that by basing one's work on something "ideal" or of great value (to oneself and/or to society), one's senses and intellect become dramatically sharpened.
This heightened sensitivity or awareness or capability, enable the person to do things that ordinary people cannot.
For example, Hernando de Soto, the great economist who wrote the book The Mystery of Capital, is probably very driven in his work BECAUSE he realizes how important this theories and methodologies are in helping millions of people get out of poverty.
There are many examples, such as Dr Yunus Muhammed, who won the Nobel Prize for his micro-credit innovation. Al Gore is yet another example.
How does all this apply to you? After all, you're probably not trying to win the Nobel Prize!
The key question here is to ask yourself WHY what you're doing is so important. To whom is it important to?
Most people make the mistake of looking for a job, that is, they focus on the WHAT, not the WHY.
Why should an employer hire you? Why is your work so important? Whom does it impact?
When I created a marketing firm called Major Force in 2000, I created a slogan that captured WHY our work (I had an associate who specialized in graphic design) was so important.
"Major Force. We communicate your value."
Our work was super important because we helped clients to clearly communicate their value to the marketplace, to clients, to investors, to employees, to all stakeholders in fact. If they did not clearly communicate their value to clients, they would be extremely vulnerable to price wars.
We charged $5,000 to $10,000 for a logo that was as small as two inches by two inches!
Today, I run Talentelle.com, and my philosophy is similar: our work is super important because our mission is to "help women discover and develop their talent into a fulfilling career or exciting business."
Talentelle started out in February 2006 as a local training firm, but is now becoming a global player offering ALL women on this planet the opportunity to connect to our various systems and benefit from our online, digital or virtual solutions.
We used to offer workshops accommodating a maximum of 20 people in a physical classroom, but now have moved to the Internet and can potentially serve 3 billion women. Of course, only about one billion people are currently connected to the Internet, so we can only realistically serve 500 million women -- which is still a big market!
Anyways, my point is that the secret of success is to think big and to imagine WHY your work is so important.
I browse through profiles of Linkedin users and boy, I can tell you that most people don't feel very important at their job. Every job has the potential to change the world, it's just that people don't view things that way.
Instead, they think, "Ah, it's just a job. I get excited in the evenings or during week-ends, when I have the freedom to do what I love."
That's a huge mistake and a big error of judgment because one's job is actually the BIGGEST part of one's life. It's forty years times 250 days, or 10,000 days of work. That's 100,000 hours of work!
So basically, you can have 100,000 hours of happiness and joy, or 100,000 hours of silent pain, mind-numbing drudgery and muted suffering. It's really up to you.
To sum it up, let me share with you the title of a book by the overcommercialized guru Ashram, played by Mike Myers in the movie The Love Guru: "Does it hurt when you do that? Don't do that."
posted by Super Peter at 3:37 PM
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