The quote in the picture above is from the mesmerising graduation speech at Stanford by Steve Jobs. The video, uploaded by Stanford 9 years ago, has nearly 26.5 million views and nearly 18.5k comments. In the speech, Jobs very eloquently and articulately covered the most important learning from his life. The phrases “connecting the dots” and “remembering that I’ll be dead soon” were given new meanings that day.
The question, however, is, who among the many that heard the inspirational speech live and who among the 26.5 million who have seen the speech online have actually been able to do even a part of what Jobs mentioned? There are 376 members in the MBA Class of 2005 Group of Stanford. Had someone from that group made it big (like Jobs or even close to him), we would have known given the chatter that Social Media would have brought about.
A key part of the speech was based on “Do What You Love” (I will be using DWYL as the abbreviation for this). Jobs believed, and true from his point of view, that doing what you love is the only way to live a life of satisfaction. I have been wondering about this since the time I heard the speech a couple of years ago. Jobs was a great man, perhaps the greatest in the near history. Yet, I am certain that his DWYL principle is not universally applicable.
Take a walk back into your childhood. If someone asked you who would you like to be when you grow up, what did you answer? Did you ever say you wanted to be what you are right now? In majority of the cases the answer will be in the negative. Why did you not become that? What made you change your target and your course? In most cases, the reason will be 2 fold – financial viability (either in becoming what you wanted to or the income after you became what you wanted to) and chances of “success”.
Success, as understood by people in general, is when you have a significant income (better than most) and you are in a position of power and fame (relative to others in the field). This definition of success is the reason why we must change target or course correct. Had Jobs not been successful and famous, would he have been invited to make the speech at Stanford?
Those who choose to do what they love, take a huge risk. Most of them fail and we don’t get to hear of them. There are a few who become ‘successes’ and we all hear many stories about them. Much of the population gets into a job – to earn a livelihood and support the family. Success is a by-product or a result.
Three articles really made me think deeper about this subject. The first by Catherine Baab-Muguira for the Quartz; the second by Rob Asghar for the Forbes; and the third (mentioned as a reference by Muguira in her post) by Miya Tokumitsu for Jacobin. All 3 authors talk about how and why DWYL is either wrong or a wrongly placed principle. While Tokumitsu goes to the extent of also saying why it is not in favour of the economy, Muguira talks about how we need to work for money and if what we love does not have a commercial outcome, it can never be something we can do for a living. Asghar gives 5 reasons as to why doing what you love may not work for any of us.
I come from the same school of thought. Many of us work for large corporations. We are surrounded by the same colleagues every single work day. Do you think all those colleagues really wanted to work for the same company and do the same thing every single day from 9 to 5? Do you think that this was or is their passion? Yet, among those many colleagues, there would be a few who would be the ‘successful’ ones, those that the organisation tags as key talent and those who win almost every company award. What makes them perform so well? Are they really doing what they love? Ask them a simple question. If it wasn’t what they are doing currently, what would they have done (if you weren’t a marketing/ sales/ finance/ risk/ HR/ Legal… manager, what would you have been?)? The answer would be what they really love doing. Ask them why they aren’t doing that for a living and the answer most probably would be linked to the financial viability with a shade of risk.
Yet, they are people we need to learn from. What makes them successful? The answer is not DWYL but LWYD (Love What You Do). Very few of us can make a future by doing what we love but if we all love what we do, we will succeed for certain. LWYD is not easy, it can be really taxing and it demands a lot of conditioning of the mind. However, once done, it is the best thing you can have working for you. Here is how I have come about LWYD.
1. Start by pledging to do well
Many of us want to just do our jobs. And that is what we will end up doing for the rest of our lives. If what you do is done well, you will see the difference for yourself. Give it your 100%. Think about how you can make a difference. Be improvement focussed. When something is assigned to you, have the obsession to do it better than anyone else. A job well done is a sign of a person with the right intent. A person with the heart in the right place is bound to get attention. Success will follow.
2. Do the new
In Muguira’s article, she mentions this person who had been doing the same thing for decades, up to his retirement. Most of us will end up working in a similar manner. Monotony is the prime reason for people to get detached from their work. To keep your energy high, keep looking at doing things differently – more efficiently, more effectively. Your hunt for something new will keep your love affair with your work last long. Remember, it is not for the organisation or the boss to give you something new to do. She already has his list for himself. So, you look for your list and push her to make it possible for you.
3. Set new, more challenging targets
If the same work is required of you, make it more interesting by changing the parameters of success for yourself. Can you do it in lesser time than last? Can you do it spending lesser resources than the last time? Can you drive better results than last time? Your targets for yourself must be over and above the organisation’s target for what you do. Challenge yourself and make it happen, and you will love your work.
4. Be happy and spread happiness
The one thing that differentiates a place you’d love vs. a place you’d hate is whether it is a happy place or not. Imagine coming to work to a place where there is no energy and you are surrounded by cynics and naysayers with a dull expression. In contrast, imagine you are at a place where people want to get on with the day, are cheerful and want to do good work. The latter workplace will be a place you’d like to come back to. That’s the start of a love story. Build that kind of a workplace, and, NO, it is not for HR to make it happen.
These are not universal rules. These are also not based on research. These are observations from my over-a-dozen-years of working and getting into jobs that are a huge departure from what I love. Clearly, I am not into DWYL. Yet, I have found love in what I do. And that has made all the difference. The question is, whether you DWYL or LWYD!
