The Spirit of the Work

Just the other day a young man came into the gym. He was going door-to-door to make connections and sales for the company he represented. He did his pitch. It felt distant, mildly robotic, and generally unattached to getting a result. Just before leaving he asked for a business card. 

They always ask for a business card. 

Here’s a teaching lesson for us all. You can technically do a task without capturing the spirit of the task. Consider the door-to-door salesman. He works for a company. The company hired him to make sales. He works for the company to make a salary. Sales are variable, so the company makes a deal. The job description reads: “Lead at least twelve door to door sales meetings each day. Bring back a business card from each.”

In an effort to quantify the work, the business asks the rep to bring back at least twelve business cards each day. Meanwhile, the business doesn’t want business cards, they want sales. Now, if we go back to my experience with the sales rep it was clear he was working, but he wasn’t capturing the intended spirit of the work. He was speaking to me with one goal in mind: to get a business card. I felt for the employer who could never succeed with employees working without the intended spirit of the role. 

Keep the spirit in your work and it will never die.