In past offerings, we’ve dabbled in discussing “what do we want” in our professional lives, so we thought we’d take a deeper dive into some elements of what this truly means. It’s a little more of an existential topic than usual, but we thought we’d mix it up a bit….
In his book, The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life, the New York Times op-ed commentator, David Brooks writes: “Every so often, you meet people who radiate joy—who seem to know why they were put on this earth, who glow with a kind of inner light. Life, for these people, has often followed what we might think of as a two-mountain shape. They get out of school, they start a career, and they begin climbing the mountain they thought they were meant to climb. Their goals on this first mountain are the ones our culture endorses: to be a success, to make your mark, to experience personal happiness. But when they get to the top of that mountain, something happens. They look around and find the view . . . unsatisfying. They realize: This wasn’t my mountain after all. There’s another, bigger mountain out there that is actually my mountain……….And so they embark on a new journey. On the second mountain, life moves from self-centered to other-centered. They want the things that are truly worth wanting, not the things other people tell them to want...”
I love this conceptually, as it beautifully encapsulates some of our professional trajectories. When we’re starting out, the base of good ‘ole Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Needs is front and center: physiological needs (we need to eat and have a place to live!) and safety needs (we must feel safe in our environments) are fundamental; that’s why they are the two largest platforms in the pyramid. To Mr. Brooks’ point, and frankly because we’re usually young and inexperienced, we follow a prescribed path toward a job to support ourselves - we need to eat! For sure, as we take our first wobbly steps towards self reliance, a job, any job, will do. En route to my new home in Colorado, I worked at a gas station in Shoemakersville, Pennsylvania, pumping gas for truckers and making pots of coffee for weary travelers at the attached convenience store. Was it my “calling?” I think not, but it paid the bills and helped get me to this state I’ve called home for just shy of 30 years. It was survival - a means to an end.
As we mature, advance and grow professionally, these basic human needs are usually satisfied as we earn more, and we migrate towards the top three tiers of the structural outline Maslow offers: love and belonging needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization needs which are less tangible. These are the needs of our souls. But, do we get stuck in the jobs we’ve chosen and the aforementioned pre-prescribed path that our companies lay out for us, tantalizing us with more money, titles and responsibilities? To be sure, the likelihood of myself aspiring to manage that truck stop in Shoemakersville was slim to none. However, as I began to establish my life in Colorado (got married, had a baby, bought a home), those basic necessities of physiological and safety needs became a little more amorphous and the lure of climbing the proverbial ladder more attractive. Then 2015 came around. As some of you know, divorce happened, we went to trial as a result and my back broke. I was 50 at the time. Clearly this was the valley David Brooks describes so well in his book. It was an experiential turning point and I would argue, a life-changing time in my existence. I was at the base of my second mountain, that place where, as Brooks talks about “On the second mountain, life moves from self-centered to other-centered”.
Here’s a thought: What if our societal structure, professional development and higher learning platforms highlighted the 3 intangibles in addition to the fundamental ones? What if we could simultaneously climb both mountains (metaphorically of course, climbing two mountains at a time is a human impossibility, but go with me on this, ok...)? What if we were able to develop and nurture our young people with an eye towards steering them towards their natural gifts and talents? What if we, as parents and educators, started paying closer attention to our next generation of professionals? What are they good at? What do they want? How can we help them achieve both financial and devotion-based goals? Millennials have actually done a great job at starting these types of conversations: many of them want a “work-life balance;” They’re more interested in making investments in companies they support and agree with philosophically - like green energy - as opposed to making the highest returns. Many have eschewed the prescriptives of “this is how one succeeds” and are defining for themselves what “success”’ means to them. They then follow those dreams for personal, professional self-actualization, often by giving back. And many of them have been sorely vilified for not “doing it right.”
What if we supported and helped nurture not only foundational elements of Maslow’s needs (food, shelter and safety), but also support the quest for the less tangible ingredients of self actualization: love, belonging, esteem and personal fulfillment in our professional and personal existences?
To be sure, this author is a late bloomer. I wouldn’t change anything as FIG is the sum of all my experiences. It is my calling, my vocation, my truth and the confluence of every single thing I’ve done in my life personally and professionally. Sharing with others the totality of what I’ve seen and experienced: the well run companies, the not so well run, and the understanding that the reasons (there are reasons for everything!) are all overlaid with understanding and explanations of “why:” the massive human component in organizations, assumptions, opinions and worldviews. FIG has helped me evolve to an “other centered’ human,” one who not only wants to share the wisdom accumulated, discovering the professional delight in guiding others in their professional journeys, but also finding the measure of success that comes with pursuing a passion.
FIG has decades of study, we see it’s working. A second mountain with joy.
Until next time…...