I was recently interviewing Paul Altieri who owns Bob’s Watches, and he mentioned how he’s often asked by younger people, “What’s the secret to your success?” He said he hears it over and over, and he used to go through and give a bunch of his different business principles and so on, until one day he used a different approach.
He would say, “Hey, I’m gonna give it to you simple, and you don’t want to tell anybody. It’s actually a four-letter word.”
And they would lean in, intrigued, “Oh, what is it?”
The answer would shock them. “WORK!!”
This always left them sitting back disappointed, kind of like, “Oh… No. Really? That’s what it is?”
He would then explain how work, perseverance, and grit is what it took for him to grow his business and become successful.
We’ve all heard the old adage, “I’m an overnight success after working twenty years;” but there’s something powerful about what he said with, ‘WORK!’
I believe we’re all created to work. But I also believe that most of us have an opportunity, especially when we’re younger, to begin to look for work that we are wired to do and that we enjoy. This idea that there’s an easy button, that I can just fall into it and I don’t have to struggle or fight for it is a LIE. This mentality sets us up for dashed expectations once we go after it.
Work has a way of refining us. It’s humbling. We do things in our early jobs and even in our later jobs where things don’t work out and we discover more about ourselves. They create environments for us to make mistakes, sometimes publicly. Work. It’s a privilege to be able to work, and it’s a privilege to work all lifelong.
The alternative to work is not working. Everybody I’ve ever met who doesn’t have to work seems to be missing out on a clear path towards a life of meaning. I think as we discover a life of meaning, the value of work, and of earning, giving and saving, it’s a very rewarding process.
Often times another four-letter word comes into play: WAIT. Many people work years, decades even, to accumulate and build up an organization. They diligently plod along, trying to create.
So, when the question is asked, “What’s the secret to your success?” and the answer is ‘work,’ the question asker is shocked. It’s as if they’re hoping for some simple scratch and sniff card where you take your penny out and scratch to find the answer. The question really is an attempt for a short cut, though it really begs a different question, “Are you trying to get through life on easy street?” You’ve just asked them for the secret, thinking that it would make life easy for you and you wouldn’t have to discover it on your own, though now you’re left with an answer that isn’t what you want to do: Work.
Work involves sweat. Work involves pain, and struggle. Yet it also results in enjoyment by being able to take some of what we’ve made and share it with others.
