The Reward of Work

“The reward of work is the increased capacity to perform.” - Rudi
The real reward of work is to continuously grow and expand your skills and capabilities. It might not be easy but when growing you improve your own self-worth and also add to the worth of the society that you belong to.

I read recently that people in China work 11-hour days for six days a week and are lucky to take home $132.00 for the month.   Even though over-worked many feel grateful that they have a job and are able to send some money home to their families in the country.    Not only do they work long tedious hours but the work they do is repetitive and often absolutely boring.  A number of years back, I visited a few factories in Beijing, Hong Kong and Chungking.  I remember seeing over 100 ladies keypunching, sitting in rows each next to each other with very little room in-between.   It looked very intense compared to an American data entry facility I was used to seeing.   I wouldn’t want to trade jobs with any of them.

Work can be very very hard and tedious.  And for most people in the world, work is no fun at all, just a necessity for surviving. But, work can and should be a rewarding experience.  To me it doesn’t matter what you do now as long as you are serving the needs of society and that you have an opportunity to learn and grow on the job.   Sure you might have a job that is now boring and repetitive but learn how to be the best at doing it and then look around you and jump at the first opportunity to do something new.  That opportunity will always be there for you.  Trouble is that most people are afraid of jumping into that new job for the fear that they will not succeed at it.

In my lectures, I like to talk about Michael Miller whose job was to close 8000 VHS covers on an assembly line.  He did this every day.  One day it occurred to Michael that by placing two pieces of cardboard against the line, the covers would close automatically on their own.  Michael figured out how to replace himself.  I then faced the audience and asked them how many of you would do what Michael did and replace yourself?   Only a few hands went up.  What would you do?