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?
1