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On September 7, 1903, in the middle of economic panic on Wall Street, President Theodore Roosevelt addressed an anxious crowd at the Labor Day Parade in Syracuse, New York. Facing a looming depression, Roosevelt spoke on what he knew best, inspiring the workers of America. “Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing,” said Roosevelt. His words still echo today. Work, if pursued correctly, can be one of the most rewarding and fulfilling activities a man can undertake.
Whether it is earning a living for our families and ourselves, taking out the trash, or doing homework, work occupies much of our waking lives. Yet we seldom stop to ask ourselves what our occupation means to us or why we do it. What do you want to be when you grow up? What do you do for work? How you answer these questions may determine how you will spend much of your life.
As men mature, school can become harder and the workweek gets longer. Soon enough, we all learn that work is a necessary, unavoidable part of life. It does not stop on the weekend, when the school bell rings, or at retirement. The early English settlers of Jamestown, Virginia, learned this the hard way when they decided not to do their share of work for the colony. To solve the problem, Captain John Smith, their leader, made a new rule: If you don’t work, you don’t eat. The men’s perspective changed very quickly.
The attitude you take in your approach to work is vital. Often, your job will be tedious, burdensome, and primarily serve the interests of someone else. The more time you spend working, the less time you have for playing, and it becomes easy to live for the weekend. Vacation and recreation become the escape from work. The thought of such a reward enables many a man to endure long and grueling days in an occupation he dislikes.
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As is often the case, life can become separated between livelihood and leisure. In one, man receives money for his efforts; in the other, he receives satisfaction from his earnings. The two are both dependent on each other, but we act as if they are two separate worlds—the workweek and the weekend. Why not search for a life that connects both, what Aristotle called the ideal life? Here’s one test: When you think of what brings you happiness, do you think of work or do you think of leisure activities, such as hobbies or recreations? Why not both?
Eric Liddell, a Scottish athlete who won the men’s 400 meters in the 1924 Summer Olympics, said, “When I run, I feel God’s pleasure.” After the Olympics, Liddell returned to his work as a missionary in China, one of the greatest sacrifices a man can make through work.
In a telling confession, the Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw once said, “The harder I work the more I live.” The reward for work can go far beyond the paycheck and there is much satisfaction to be found in a job well done. Aristotle observed that “pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.” A worthy goal is to find the same type of enjoyment in your life’s labors.
Remember, the word vocation comes from the Latin root “to call.” Your “calling” is your life’s work. It can be done enthusiastically or carelessly, cheerfully or grudgingly. Approached the right way, a man’s labor can be both his vocation and his avocation. Done improperly, his work can be what philosopher Leo Strauss deemed a “joyless quest for joy.” It’s up to you. Your occupation can be a means to an end, or it can be an end in itself.
The lesson here is to find something you love to do, whatever it might be, and do it to the best of your ability. As parents, we often tell our kids to get good grades, go to a good school, and get a good job. But, is that the best advice we can give? Not every student is the next Rhodes Scholar, nor wants to be. Not every man is the next Bill Gates, nor wants to be. Different people are attracted to different types of work. I’m not saying to lower your expectations; instead, I’m saying to be the best at what you love and don’t let image, status, or jealousy steer you away from that. “Every calling is great,” said Oliver Wendell Holmes, “when greatly pursued.”
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That being said, sometimes, even often, people have to choose work they don’t enjoy to accomplish other worthy ends. Fathers and mothers clean offices, drive cabs at night, take in sewing and take other second jobs so they can provide for their family or send a child through college. And for young people, often your first job is not going to be something you necessarily love or want to do for its own sake, but it ought to be a step toward a job you will enjoy. Often the long-term goal of the job you really love is reached by taking a few jobs you know you’re not going to love.
Remember, no matter the job, no matter the calling, there can be purpose in it. Jimmy Buffett, the hardworking singer of songs about leisure, has a song entitled “It’s My Job,” the chorus of which runs, “It’s my job to be better than the rest, and that makes the day for me.” Singer, songwriter, trucker, physician, attorney, trash collector, carpenter, you name it—there is, or can be, meaning in our work.
Needless to say, one area we often neglect is manual labor. Hard physical labor is what men did for many centuries. Some still do. Before the Industrial Revolution, almost all work was physical work, but since the inventions of the assembly line, robotics, and computers, man finds himself being “modernized,” drawn away from open-air fields and shops and more into offices and cubicles.
What’s changed, too, is that a majority of today’s workforce has shifted to what we call a knowledge-based economy. But that does not mean that blue-collar work is mindless and enervating, while white-collar work is intellectually superior and therefore more rewarding. George Orwell once said, in retrospect almost prophetically, “[C]ease to use your hands and you have lopped off a huge chunk of your consciousness.”
Despite what popular culture might convey, we know there is something intrinsically satisfying in being able to plant your own garden, repair your own house, and fix your own car. Recently, a friend of mine was recovering from life-threatening cancer. His doctor told him that he could not work, exercise, or enjoy the other fruits of life—all things that men pride themselves on. I asked him what hurts the most to be without. “Work,” he said. “I don’t feel like a man. Work has more to do with me being a man than sex or muscle.”
The truth is that work satisfies more than just material needs. It quenches an innate yearning for order, importance, and regularity. French writer Albert Camus believed that “without work, all life goes rotten. But when work is soulless, life stifles and dies.” Find fulfillment and enjoyment in your work, not aside from it. As the following excerpts and accounts will illustrate, manhood is incomplete without acknowledging the importance of, and doing, good work.