Just back from one hell of a trip to Chennai and Mumbai. I think I must have gotten about 16 hours of sleep for the 4 days – each involving atleast 8 hours of work – I was away; just crazed at the moment.

A conversation in Great Britain, frozen in time for over 400 years.

The Bard’s been resting at that Holy Trinity Church for a while now. Stratford-upon-Avon needs to be visited to experience it’s historical importance.

“The average man is a conformist, accepting miseries and disasters with the stoicism of a cow standing in the rain.” – Colin Wilson

At the Bangalore airport on my way to Mumbai, I picked up Seth’s Meatball Sundae. And, what a delight of a little book that is! Seth speaks from the collected wisdom of studying marketing campaigns run by companies, big and small, using the so called “New Marketing” approaches that are driven primarily by the Internet. He’s realized that those big brands that manufactured their domination in the last century by building “average products for average people” no longer succeed in using the Internet to expand their businesses, as the Internet isn’t built for mass communications that ride on the one-size-fits-all approach, but on targeted, customized conversations with people who have given companies permission to speak to them.

It’s those companies that build products or offer services that resonate with certain select groups of people, that would really marshal the power of cheap and targeted channels of communication the Internet offers. Advertisements on T.V. and on billboards just do not have the same power over people anymore. If you are one of those who do not make or sell something that’s so basic a want that tends to be bought soon after people are shown some marketing material of that thing – in which case, mass marketing still makes the most sense – it’s best to first understand how the Internet has altered the consumption habits of humans as a species and tailor your organization to align to them.

This is because, if something does not sell, it’s as good as it not being made. Umm, profound stuff!

I’m back in Bangalore after a short trip to Mumbai.

“There is no easy formula for determining right and wrong livelihood, but it is essential to keep the question alive. To return the sense of dignity and honor to manhood, we have to stop pretending that we can make a living at something that is trivial or destructive and still have sense of legitimate self-worth. A society in which vocation and job are separated for most people gradually creates an economy that is often devoid of spirit, one that frequently fills our pocketbooks at the cost of emptying our souls.”– Sam Keen

“There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.” – Sam Walton

In this interview, Tim Ferriss has the following to say:

“Converting your own passions into a job is the fastest method for eliminating any passion you once had.”

I think the above is true when you define a job as something that Michael Gerber talks about: one that you have to keep doing it, doing it, doing it day in and day out, with all the other associated chores that go with it. You don’t have a job, the job has you. And it has you trapped and bored.

So, what do you do?

Po Bronson might help us a bit. He says “…avoiding crap shouldn’t be the objective in finding the right work. The right question is, How can I find something that moves my heart, so that the inevitable crap storm is bearable?”

And, how do you make it bearable?

Umair Haque may have the answer. In his post on How to Build a Next-Gen Business Now, he lays out five steps to build such a business. The final step is:

“This final step - rediscovering meaning in the work we do – isn’t just the most difficult to come to grips with. It’s also the most critical – because though the other steps are necessary, they’re not sufficient. Without a deeply felt – and a powerfully lived – sense of meaning, every business will devolve to what the investment banks became: machines engineered with relentless precision to destroy long-run value, often implosively so.”

So, that’s that then. It’s the meaning one derives from one’s work that’s the source of fulfillment. A job that’s satisfying and fulfilling is the thing we need to strive for.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has written a book about the topic. Guy Kawasaki too says the same thing in his famous book, “The Art of the Start“:

“There really is only one question you should ask yourself before starting any new venture:

Do I want to make meaning?

Meaning is not about money, power, or prestige. It’s not even about creating a fun place to work. Among the meanings of “meaning” are to

• Make the world a better place.
• Increase the quality of life.
• Right a terrible wrong.
• Prevent the end of something good.”

So, let’s all go into the world and make some meaning.

Here’s a wonderful article about John Grisham and his work. He got his first book published about 20 years ago, when he was about 34. And now, after all those years and after having several more popular books and movies based on his stories, he is a fantastic success. Read the article to know that he too faced financial trouble when young, that he too struggled earlier to complete books and to have them accepted for publication. Midway through the interview, he says that he “prefers to appreciate his success rather than boast about it“.

It’s a lot better to pay attention now to the life one needs to construct, and to work towards that vision. At the end of it all, it could mean the difference between one priding over a vast body of influential work and presiding over the debris of his or her dreams.