The Meaning of Work: You Are MORE Than Your Job Title

“Nobody wants to work anymore”…the problem is that has been said for well over 100 years now! 

Here is a headline all the way back to 1894 declaring that “nobody wants to work anymore”  

I don’t want to be in a place where we see work as 

• Cursed
• A means to an end 
• As a lifeless 9 to 5, tryin’ to make a livin’ 
• Hallucinating that it’s 5 o’clock somewhere
• Something to “take and shove it”
• Just another Manic Monday  

Work is deeper than that, more powerful than that 

Work is an opportunity…

• Grover Cleveland said, “Honor lies in honest toil.” 
• Epicurus said, “the greater the difficulty, the more the glory in surmounting it”
• Proverbs 12:11 – “A hard worker has plenty of food, but a person who chases fantasies has no sense.”

Let’s, if only for a moment, stack hands and agree that work is a gift, and work is good.  That’s where I want to be, because a world without work is a world with

• No creativity, or creating!
• No interaction
• No opportunity
• No cross-pollination 

We say, “nobody wants to work anymore!”…when in reality they just don’t want to work for you because you are grumpy! 

“Scott, nobody wants to sweat anymore…work with their hands anymore…do the hard things.”   

You can continue to buy that garbage of a thought…are you can shift your mindset and begin believing…and therefore living out your belief by 

CREATING A CULTURE WHERE PEOPLE DO WISH TO DO HARD THINGS!

There will always be a mountain to climb in building a culture of intentionality within your business.   

“Well Scott, you don’t understand…construction is hard!  Job costing, billing, subs, change orders, material delays, and price volatility…it’s not like other businesses?” 

Welcome to the world of business…owning an ice cream shop is hard, owning a medical clinic is hard, owning a multi-investor funded tech startup is hard.  It’s all hard…but it can also be good. 

Let’s stop pretending that our circumstance is unique…business is hard, and therefore business can be good. 

So what is the mountain of our time?   

Shifting our mindset about what work IS and what work is not. 

Work is not a novel concept.  I do a reasonable amount of reading and find some of the quirkier stories more interesting.   

Some of my favorite sections of historical literature are those that tend to meander into peculiar fields.  

The idea of work and industries is far older than we think it is.  Going back to 1400BC there is reference to three different men that is interesting…

“Adah gave birth to Jabal, the ancestor of all who live in tents and herd cattle (cowboy). His brother’s name was Jubal, the ancestor of all who play the lyre and flute (musician). Zillah gave birth to Tubal-Cain, who worked at the forge making bronze and iron tools (a sub-contracting tradesman).” (Gen 4:19-22 MSG) 

Around the same time  we meet Bezalel and Oholiab. 

“Bezalel son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. He’s filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability, and know-how for making all sorts of things, to design and work in gold, silver, and bronze; to carve stones and set them; to carve wood, working in every kind of skilled craft. And he’s also made him a teacher, he and Oholiab son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan. He’s gifted them with the know-how needed for carving, designing, weaving, and embroidering in blue, purple, and scarlet fabrics, and in fine linen. They can make anything and design anything.”  (Ex 35: 30-35 MSG)

Work is an age-old stage, a platform to offer and deliver a skill that brings value to others. 

Without the skill there is no business. 

Without the value there is no business. 

Without the others there is no value. 

The late Professor of Philsophy at the U. of Southern California Dr. Dallas Willard studied this idea of work deeply and came to some insightful convictions. 

Willard defines work as “the production of value by the actions of our thoughts and bodily efforts upon available resources” (Called To Business pg. 1). 

He goes on to extol work by suggesting that “work is simply human creativity.  It is a special type of causation through which goodness and blessing can be promoted in our surroundings” (Called To Business pg. 2). 

So what is the mountain?  What is stopping us from leaning into solving problems with creativity by which good and blessing can jump from you to the person you serve? 

Chaos is harassing and that exasperation steals our attention from purpose and places it squarely on the back of entitlement and irritation.   

What is the point of business?  Willard steers a weary worker to be revived with the truth that “the basic aim of business is to make provision for the needs of the people in an area served.” 

In line with that conviction, Willard says that everyone in hear has three parts that make up the productivity of their lives. 

First, is your job (what you get paid to do). 

Second, is your ministry (how you care for others).  Be careful not to hear a religious usage of ministry…it is the unique way you care for others.  

Third, is your work.  Willard describes your work as “the total amount of good that you will accomplish in your lifetime.”

The circle surrounding your work, your ministry, and your job is the circle of your life.   

What has stolen the joy from our work is that the smallest thing has actually become the thing that defines our entire identity.   

For me, my life is made up this way. 

My work is to be a light and create space to entice the nations into God’s community which is marked by calmness and hope…although it’s hard.

My ministry (CARE FOR OTHERS) is to liberate owners and key leaders from chaos.

My job is as an owner and business coach at BOP. 

I don’t want my headstone to read, “He was an owner and business coach at BOP”.   

I would prefer a headstone declaring, “He welcomed the nations into God’s community.” 

Do we know you by your job title (job)? 

Or, do we know you by the specific ways you care for people (ministry)? 

Or, do we know you by the total fruit of your job + care for people + relationships + parenting+etc. (that’s your work)? 

Our work is an opportunity and stage for us to care for other people, and a trampoline for how we love our spouses, parent our children, and interact in our local communities.   

So what do we do with this?

First, be aware of who we are as human beings.  You are not a job title, a family title, or customer to be exploited. 

You are Andrew, Molly, Jessica, Conner, Alyssa, and Ken. 

Be aware that it is good to have a job, and to serve others uniquely both at that job and outside of that job, and to have an intentional mission to the other areas of your life because life and business necessarily intersect. 

Second, starting asking yourself, “how do I insist and go hard after such excellence in my job SO THAT it becomes a legitimate gift and service to other team members, clients, subs, vendors, and community members?” 

That excellence will begin to mound up to a mountain of service that yields a excess of provision that other people benefit from…there you will find meaning in your work.

Scott Beebe is the founder of Business On Purpose (mybusinessonpurpose.com) and speaker for the AEC industry and author of the book Let Your Business Burn: Stop Putting Out Fires, Discover Purpose, and Build a Business That Matters. Business On Purpose works with business owners to articulate purpose, people, process, and profit to liberate owners from chaos and make time for what matters most.