Page 20 - How Great Leaders Build Abundant Organizations That Win
P. 20

CH A P T ER 1








                The Case for Meaning











                    his morning, people all over the planet got out
                    of bed and got ready for work. Some headed out
                    before dawn in high-end cars to claim high-rise
                    offices with high-tech computers and highbrow
                    clients. Some headed out before dawn to walk
        Tbarefoot, wares on their head, to claim a choice
        spot in the dirt near the entrance to the village market.
        Some wrestled with the muses to create artistic masterpieces
        or solve perplexing scientific problems. Others wrestled
        with boredom to complete their shifts at cash registers, call
        centers, or assembly lines. Some pitched their résumés in
        business suits, looking for good benefits and a sure path to
        comfortable retirement. Some made their pitch in ragged
        jeans on street corners, looking for someone to rent their
        muscles for at least the day.
          Some people in each one of these and many other cat-
        egories by which we could define work found a sense of
        meaning, purpose, even abundance in their labor today.
        Others in each category found world-weary tedium, frustra-
        tion, and despair.
           Which were you?
           Which were the people you lead?


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