Summary: The article discusses the concept of life’s work, which is a lifelong quest to build something for others that reflects who you are. It emphasizes the importance of service and authenticity in one’s work, and suggests asking oneself questions such as where they feel resistance or fear and what they would keep doing no matter how much money they had to help identify their life’s work. The article also includes quotes from various sources, including Steve Jobs and Joseph Campbell, about the nature of fulfilling work and great leadership.
“Life’s Work:”
“A lifelong quest to build something for others that expresses who you are” (View Highlight)
“A LIFELONG QUEST” reflects the reality that work isn’t about a series of accomplishments, which ultimately ring hollow. Asimov wrote “past glories are poor feeding” (View Highlight)
Those doing their life’s work agree with Kevin Kelly’s brilliant maxim: “the reward for good work is more work,” and want to spend as much time “working” as they can in this short life.
Everything worth doing is worth doing for its own sake. (View Highlight)
“TO BUILD SOMETHING FOR OTHERS” is a reminder that work is about service— making others’ lives better. The poet David Whyte wrote “the authentic watermark running through the background of a life’s work is an arrival at generosity.” (View Highlight)
Steve Jobs believed this was a central idea, too: “Life can be much broader, once you discover one simple fact, and that is that everything around you that you call ‘life’ was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use. Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.” (View Highlight)
