Developing Professional Passions, Part 3

The German group CultivatingEnjoyment through Appreciation met the end of February.  How did I prepare myself for the session’s topic “Developing Professional Passions”?

Since I proudly consider myself to be the group’s founder and facilitator I thought I better prepare myself well for the upcoming meeting.  While sipping my café au lait I practiced every morning at dawn.  (It is amazing how much longer the days have become all of a sudden during the month of February due to Germany’s location at rather high latitudes.)  During the first two weeks of practice I gave “lectures” (I have a habit of speaking out loud to an imaginary audience) about the definition of work and the different modalities of work.  Then it “dawned” on me what my own assignment had been and I set out to delve into my various work experiences to draw from them their enjoyable memories and aspects.  I was amazed about my past professional life on which I hardly ever reflect any more.  It was as if the enjoyable experiences related to my work had been hidden away in boxes covered with cob webs sitting on dusty shelves tucked away in the basement.  Long forgotten.  But I brought them out, one by one, lugged them into the light, dusted them off, took out the individual items and polished them a little.  And there they were, proud and aglow with radiance.  How much I am now appreciating my professional accomplishments.  When I think of this mental work I’ve done during just one month and of the effect this work has had on me I am actually stunned that my CultivatingEnjoyment practices work that well.  If I only could get other groups to form all over the world so that the participants could see their professional lives (and all the other aspects of their lives) in a new light and be truly grateful for all they’ve achieved over the years, for the contributions they made, for the benefits they derived, and for the growth experiences their work has afforded them….

Can work only be considered work when money is earned?

But let’s begin by making some general statements about work.  Must the definition of work necessarily include making money?  I think not - what do you think?  Could studying be called work?  Isn’t it the work of a student to study?  But the student makes no money from studying.  On the contrary, a student must pay money.  A lot of money in the US.  (I am always amused when the Germans complain about having to pay for their studies.  They don’t have a clue what that means.)  Can the work of a mother or homemaker be called work?  Homemakers work pretty much 24/7.  At least they are on call around the clock, especially when the home includes children and pets.  Can homemaking be called work since the homemaker makes no money at all?  I once read that if the services performed by a homemaker and mother on a daily basis would have to be paid for individually, the yearly cost would exceed $100.000.  And that was in the nineties, who knows how much money would be required today?  Of course we’re not including a mother’s love, because that can’t be purchased on the market.  So on the one hand, a mother’s or homemaker’s services paid for individually amount to a large sum, and on the other homemakers and mothers don’t make a single dime.  This is one of the very odd societal customs, norms, or mentalities - don’t you think?

And what about the mountain of work that had been performed for the creation of something new and valuable but that never saw the light of day having been scrapped instead because something else was favored?  Silicon Valley, where I lived and worked, is full of entrepreneurial dreams.  From all those visions for new software or IT gismos, followed by years of dedicated development and hard work, perhaps as few as five percent end up being financed by venture funding.  Of these five percent of dreams that made it and that became viable companies perhaps twenty percent survive through the first several years.  Those companies that enter into a continuous growth phase or those firms that become well known or those enterprises that become world renown are all minuscule in numbers.  For those success stories, a tremendous beehive of entrepreneurial activities has been going on behind the scenes for a long time carried out by top visionaries who are truly passionate about their work and who will end up with a lot of experience – but will rake no financial gain whatsoever and in many cases incur substantial losses possibly placing themselves and their families into financial hardship.

All this effort in vain in respect to being rewarded with riches or to just humbly making a living.  For every book that is successfully published how many are written that never will be?  How many engineering drawings are being produced before one of them is finally selected for the building or the manufacturing process?  How many scientific tests are being conducted, prototypes of gismos are being developed, code is being written, or projects are carried out with results that are inconclusive?  All of that work is pushing forward the evolutionary development of industries and from all that work many valuable insights are gained.  But in terms of raking in the big bucks or even the little ones, they all fail miserably.  Can any of that be called work or does work have to include making a profit?

Is someone working when they are volunteering their time for a good cause?  Again, no income is being generated.  A service is provided, and it is clear from the outset that this service is given free of charge.  When a sales person working exclusively on commission labors away day in and day out for months or longer without closing a deal (especially for some high-ticketed items like Lear jets ;-) is that person working?  When an artistically inclined person - a dancer, musician, painter, fashion designer, actor, singer, music composer, documentary producer, writer, you name it – works endless hours towards building their skills and expressing their creativity for their own fulfillment and a cultural contribution to their fellow-citizens and when no buyers show up to extend payment for their creations – can what they do be called work? 

Or are all these people living their passion – albeit not without hardship at times – and simply indulging in their hobbies and interests and pastimes rather than facing the reality of life which involved earning a livelihood?  Did Gandhi or Mother Theresa work, since neither of them made a penny?  And the Dalai Lama or countless Buddhist monks, Shinto and Tao priests, and other religious representatives whose dedication is to serve their God?

It turns out then that a large percentage of the population works all day long but doesn’t receive the financial reward of their labor.  In contrast there are those who become fabulously rich because society places a high value on entertainment, for instance:  movie actors, soap opera queens, entertainers, singers, dancers, players of team sports, golfers, show wrestlers, car racers, etc.  And then there are those who make tremendous amounts of money from providing unethical, immoral, unhealthy, or dangerous good and services because there are people in this world willing to pay for harming themselves or others by way of alcohol, drugs, arms, or gambling.  I could name others.

So, then, what is the definition of work?  How much talent is hidden in people for which they will never get paid because it remains unknown or cannot be nurtured?  How many people have brilliant ideas but lack sufficient skills, knowledge, or funds to market them?  What about the starving artists?  How many gifted inventors had to forego large sums because they were financially unable to protect their innovations through international patents?  How many scientific discoveries are ruthlessly being exploited by large companies filling their coffers leaving the innovators empty handed. 

I know this is an open-ended question.

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