Why we work
Why do we work?
It sounds silly, but really—Why do you and I get out of bed each morning, look at our computer screens, and try to hit the right keys in the right order? More puzzling still, why do we do this again the next day, ad infinitum?
I’ve been reading The Difference Between God and Larry Ellison*: Inside Oracle Corporation and found that Ellison gave a decent answer. Here’s the excerpt:
Life is the enlightened pursuit of happiness, not the unenlightened pursuit of as much money as you can accumulate. The only things that are important in our lives are love and work. Not necessarily in that order. We work because work is an act of creation. We identify with it. But love and work conspire to deliver some kind of happiness. If we can get reasonably good at both of them, we are in really great shape.
The irony of a man who’s perhaps best known for accumulating great sums of wealth telling us that such a path is “unenlightened” aside, we have to admit Larry Ellison knows a thing or two about doing one's life’s work. The more I turn this over in my head, the more I think he’s right here.
Ellison goes on to say (he’s speaking of his son here, but I think this is universally applicable):
He’s got the same problem the rest of us have. He has to engage in an enlightened pursuit of happiness. To figure out what makes him happy. That’s all about how you feel about yourself, how you relate to other people, what your work is, what you create, and what you make. We are builders. Human beings are builders. He is going to find something he really wants to build. He is going to have to have some idea and create something out of that idea.
The one thing I’d add is that if you’re going to make something anyway, you might as well make something that’s beautiful—It could be a photograph, a home-cooked meal, or a conversation. It can also be an email, a product, or a team of misfits that’s somehow able to achieve things greater than the sum of its parts.
Whatever it is, make it.
Make it everyday.
And make it beautiful.
*God Doesn't Think He's Larry Ellison