How You Think About Work

GL Hoffman

There are plenty of ways to think about work. For many people, it is just something you do to make enough money to have some fun, go fishing, or party-hearty. I understand that.

For others, it's just something you do to make enough money to cover the basic necessities of family life. Nothing more.

Given that you're a reader of U.S.News, I am guessing you are neither, and that you want more out of your work life--whatever "more" is for you.

What caused you to want more? What happened in your past that gave you a bigger dream or idea about what you did to earn money? Can you think about that motivation?

Over at my blog, I jotted a quick idea as to Bill Gates’ real reason for his success. (Do you agree with my little Gruzzle?) It reminds me of that Toby Keith song “How Do You Like Me Now?"--a song penned, no doubt, to a long lost girlfriend who thought his guitar picking and singing would never amount to much. Motivation comes from odd places.

For me, I grew up in a home with Depression-era parents who didn’t think too deeply about work. If they did, I never knew it. What I knew was that they just complained about it--a lot.

I am thinking about this today because I have been talking with some twenty-somethings lately about their own career goals and such. I am struck by the lack of understanding about the connection between what they do at work, and how that ultimately benefits their company. Of course, the responsibility for an employee who can't make that connection lies squarely at management’s feet.

It is simplistic to think about work as just a guy ringing a bell with a rope--the faster and louder the bell rings when you pull on the rope, the better.

So...what rings your bell?

G.L. Hoffman is a serial entrepreneur and venture investor/operator/incubator/mentor. Two of his companies have traveled the entire success path from the garage to IPO. Currently, he is chairman of JobDig, and his blog can be found at WhatWouldDadSay.com or at JobDig.com.