Its important in life to have a purpose. To have a reason to wake up in the morning, something to be passionate about. For some this could be their family, their home, their car. Some may work for the weekend, and some will work for that summer holiday. Either way......we all need something.
Love to work!
Love your job, and you'll never have to work a day in your life. We have all heard this at one time or another I'm sure. Its way up there with 'Live, Laugh and Love', well maybe not, but still, its one of those phrases we see every now and again on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter to name a few, but who actually reads it and can say, that's what I do, I love my job!
Companies across the world spend billions on making our working environment a nice place for us to be. Nice décor, a view, a picture on the wall to brighten up your day, the latest coffee machine to pump you full of caffeine so that productivity and moral stays high, wow I love my job. But why is it in a world where we can have five different styles of cappuccino instead of seven different styles of latte, or a Sprite instead of a 7UP or Mountain Dew, or even a burger from McDonalds, Five Guys, Shake Shack, or Burger King, many of us simply put up with that one choice when it comes to work.
There is a job for everyone, and it takes a lot to make the world go round, so why do people settle? I get that life can be unfair. We get put into situations we don't want to be in. We get forced to do what we don't want to do because of responsibilities. However recently, I met a guy who is a janitor in a public restroom in a large commercial shopping mall. He originated from Pakistan, and he told me how happy he was doing his job. He didn't want a different job, he liked having his own area, he said that cleaning was his passion and he enjoyed meeting people. Its a great sense of achievement when you can be that happy in what many would consider a mundane job.
Those who know me from my corporate finance role at a large regulated UAE based investment fund will know that most days I wear a suit shirt and tie. Those that know me from my sales and management role at one of the worlds largest Yacht sales and syndication companies will know that most days I wear a pair of chinos and a smartly tucked in well pressed shirt. But those that really know me, I mean really know me and from where ive come from, will associate me with overalls, worn jeans, farmer cheque shirts and gilets for when the weather turns. Putting the fancy cars, the big houses (or dreams there of), the yachts and private jets to the side, what really makes me happy is tinkering with one of my old (maybe worthless) cars, trying to fix something that doesn't need fixing simply for the pleasure and enjoyment that it brings. Ive spent many an hour, sat in the workshop at South West Customs, polishing an alloy wheel or detailing a body panel or merely sitting and pondering whether the respray on that 1968 Jag E-type for Mr Daniels should be in Olive or Sherwood Green. In fact ive come up with some of my greatest business ideas, or solutions to problems when ive simply been doing a soulless task that I absolutely love. I call it thinking time. Perhaps its the reason so many men like a garage or a shed. Its a place to ponder, to think, to plan. So that got me thinking..... How productive, how ingenious, how efficient could we all be if we were doing something day in day out that we loved?