Work that Matters: What it Means to Give

Remember our childhood days when we were filled with curiousity? Everything looks exciting, a new world to be explored & understood. I remember we used to have a small garden with patches of grass, I would play around with my car toys & small figurines imagining it was a jungle by itself. It didn't take much to arouse that sense of imagination within me.

But as we grow up, that magical sense of wonder starts disappearing. The dreams we had when graduating from university begin its slow-yet-sure death as we enter work life and society. Without realizing many years have gone by and our work simply serves as a mean to survive and find stability. That is to say, collecting more wealth so one day we can retire & live happily ever after.

Well you might say, what's wrong with that? We have grown up and are just being realistic here. Okay, but honestly do you really feel alive? I don't mean that by simply having food to eat, things to buy, movies to watch, or weekends to look forward to (I don't think this is the case anymore after months of WFH). Do you find meaning in your daily work or simply because it pays the bills?

Alive and living are two totally different things.

I find that we often have that nudging feeling deep inside that we should be doing something meaningful instead. Then fear whispered: 'The time is not right, it is too risky. What would people say about it?' But that feeling keeps on lingering around, always looking for an outlet to come alive. That is when we share our stories, ideas, dreams to our friends and loved ones.

The essense of human experience is to express & connect. When we spend more than half of our lives working, don't you feel that our work should embody that? When that happens, work becomes art. We give a part of ourselves to others. Not because we get paid, but simply wanting to share and having that genuine connection. Coincidentally this is when magic happens. Some calls it chemistry, romance, friendship or even family.

In his talk, Seth Godin - a marketing legend whose New York Bestseller books have had transformative impacts to millions of people worldwide - shared what it means to make Work that Matters. That deep inside, when we are true to our inner selves, we yearn to do something meaningful and make an impact to other people. Some does it within their family, others within an organization, and a few to people around the world, total inclusiveness - they are called Linchpins. 

I have added quotations that really touch me, that way you can just copy-paste them, enjoy!

"When I say artist, I don't mean artist like you might think of artist (in the general sense). When I say artist, I mean somebody who does human work, unpredictable, makes a connection with someone else and changes them for the better. So you can be an artist if you're a painter. But maybe (you're) not. But you can also be an artist if you're a receptionist. And you can be an artist if you're a troubleshooter. You can be an artist if you're a fundraiser. That what art is, is the opposite of being a compliant cog (simply just fitting in).

So here's one way to think about it. Picasso is on a train, going to Spain, and there was another guy in the compartment with him. He recognizes Picasso and squeezes out his courage to go over and says: ''Excuse me, are you the great artist Pablo Picasso?' Picasso, not shy, says 'Sure, that's me.' The guy goes on and on about how big of a fan he is, then says 'But you know... my wife, she doesn't like your work so much.' And Picasso says 'What do you mean?'. 'My wife she wonders why you paint such weird paintings, why can't you just paint things as what they are?' Picasso says 'That's interesting, your wife, what does she look like?'

He grabs his wallet and takes out a picture of him and his wife. And says 'Here she is.' Picasso looks and says 'Wait a minute, she is very small and flat too! (because that is not the real her, just her image as captured within the limited media of a photo). What Picasso did for a living was not to become a replacement for the camera. We had cameras, we didn't need someone to become a system who just paint things as they were. He painted things as he saw them.

And then what painting became, what art became, what plays became, is the work of a human being. Who is doing something that someone else couldn't do." (from 9:30~)

"I went to see Levon Helm in concert a couple of weeks ago. And I notice the guy playing the piano, who makes $100 that night, He is Donald Fegan (a famous American musician inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame) from Steely Dan, working for free. What is that all about? Shouldn't he be charging a fortune?! No, he wasn't doing it to make money, he was doing to make a difference! He was doing it to pay back Levon Helm. He was doing it to be in front of the artis. That when artist realizes they have an abundance, that they are not going to run out of ideas, that they aren't going to run out of smiles, that they aren't going to run of connection, 'Wait I better give some of these stuffs away, or else they are going to be spoiled.

That this idea of abundance instead of scarcity flies against the idea of owning a factory. That factory is all about scarcity. Why would they buy something if they didn't need it? But what people who make art realize is that the more they give away, the more they touch people, the more they change people, the better they do." (from 31:20~)

"I took a cross-country skiing from a guy who is in the Salt Lake City Olympics, and what Matt taught me is that the person who wins is the person who leans forward the most. That's the sport. Because you don't move unless you start to lean forward. When you lean forward you go at it, and as you lean forward more you start moving (faster). So people who are not good at it, don't lead forward that much. That people who are good at it, lean forward so much that they often fall on their face, until they are really good at it.

So what do we need to teach our kids in school? I think we only need to teach them two things. We only need to teach them to solve interesting problems. We need to teach them to look at something that no one has ever looked at before, and come up with an interesting way to solve the problem. They might not be right all the time, but they are way better than the people who refuse to solve them at all." (from 40:45~)

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