Barry's Blog

Perhaps no dialogue in film better describes our quest for happiness, and the questioning of work, than the conversation between Cary Grant as Johnny, and Katherine Hepburn as Linda in the film, Holiday: Linda: "How does your garden grow, Case? Is life wonderful where you are?" Johnny: "It can be." Linda: "But it hasn't been?" Johnny: "Well, I don't call what I've been doing living." Linda: "And what do you recommend for yourself, Doctor?" Johnny: "A holiday." Linda: "For how long?" Johnny: "As long as I need." Linda: "Just to play?" Johnny: "No, no. I've been working since I was ten. I want to find out why I'm working. The answer can't be just to pay bills and to pile up more money. Even if you do, the government's going to take most of it." Linda: "Yes, but what is the answer?" Johnny: "Well, I don't know. That's what I intend to find out."

While many men rarely pursue the question that Johnny asked, his response does provide for an interesting discussion point as it relates to the very core of why we work. Yes, men do work to pay the bills, provide for their families, contribute to the good of society, etc. and yet, their is probably a deeper fundamental reason we work, even if the above reasons are satisfied. And what is that reason? It is that we seek fulfillment, significance, and happiness through our work.

Tom Morris, a former professor of philosophy at Notre Dame, and the author of "If Aristotle Ran General Motors: The New Soul of Business," suggests that just as the classic virtues of Truth, Beauty, Goodness, and Unity, lead to true excellence and quality in life, so also, at the heart of our universal quest is the desire for happiness. Morris suggests (and I would tend to agree with him) that if we consider the great thinkers reflecting on the topic of happiness throughout the centuries, we have probably inherited only three basic views of happiness. The following observations about our pursuit of happiness, and it's relation to work, are taken from his insightful book.

The first idea of happiness, and it's relation to our work, comes to us from the distant past, but it is the view that dominated the twentieth century. To give it expression, let us quote the deep thinker, comedian George Burns, who once mirrored the French philosopher Rousseau, but with his own distinctive twist: "Happiness is a good meal, a good cigar and a good woman. Or a bad woman, depending on how much happiness you can stand" (Rousseau actually said that happiness is "a good bank account, a good cook and a good digestion"). Burns was of course espousing the view that happiness is achieved through pleasure. In our heart of hearts, we know that happiness is not identical to pleasure, and that is definitely a good thing if we seek happiness through our work, because the workday is rarely one long wave of pleasure. While there should be pleasures associated with our work (people do their best when they enjoy what they are doing!) - good pay for work well done, recognition, promotion for deserving people - most of us realize that while extrinsic rewards provide for a happy workplace experience, what matters most is the overall process in which these enjoyments take place.

While some seek happiness through pleasure, a second view says that happiness is achieved through personal peace. Granted, we could all use a little more tranquility in our lives, as anxiety and stress have reached heightened proportions in America.  People are worried about their jobs, their marriages, their futures, and their kids. Even elementary school children talk regularly of being "stressed out ," and teachers are quick to offer suggestions  of how to cope with modern life. Yet the pace of modern life militates against calmness, especially when life has kicked into overdrive with cellphones, technological advances, and the ever-present media. And while the Stoic philosophers were right to see the importance of personal peace, such a peace is not the same as happiness. George Eliot once observed, "It is vain to say that human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquility: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it."  The truth of the matter is that we humans don't grow amid absolute tranquility. We need action, and a healthy amount of tension in our lives is good for our souls. While people in business sometimes resent the challenges coming their way, true human happiness is not to be thought of as the emotional equivalent or one long nap. Business is the activity of the living.

The third basic view of happiness is that it derives from our participation in something fulfulling. The bottom line is that we are at our best, and feel our best, when we are engaged in a worthy task. As it has already been suggested, happiness is not the same as pleasure, and it's not the same as personal peace. While both of these are relatively passive states, happiness is in fact a dynamic phenomenon of participation in something that brings fulfillment. In this sense, at its best, it is accompanied by pleasure and a good measure of personal peace. It could be argued that one of the highest forms of peace is that which accompanies a satisfying engagement in a job worth doing. Likewise, one of the greatest pleasures in life is active fulfillment from a job well done. Writer E. B. White once observed: "I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve (or save) the world, and a desire to enjoy (or savor) the world. This makes it hard to plan the day."

I think he was on to something.

For FinishingWell,

Barry Morrow