Find Your Work

Your work is to find your work and attend to it with all your heart.

― Anne Bancroft

Marvel Comics editor Mark Gruenwald so loved his work he told his wife Catherine he wanted his ashes made into a comic book.

Catherine granted his wish when he died in 1996: Gruenwald's ashes were blended with the ink used to reprint Squadron Supreme, a comic book he wrote 10 years earlier.

People long to quit jobs that make them, as Adam Smith said, "as stupid and ignorant as it is possible for a human creature to become."

But fewer and fewer are willing, as Deloitte's 2017 study of Millennial workers shows.

According to the study (conducted annually), in 2016, 17% of workers worldwide said they'd quit their jobs immediately, given the choice; in 2017, only 7% said they'd do so.

Americans feel completely trapped, according to the study. In 2016, 7% said they'd quit their jobs immediately, given the choice; in 2017, none said they would.

Deloitte cites "a generally pessimistic outlook regarding economic and social progress" as the reason Millennials feel this way.

So, in a dicey world, how can you find your work?

In 101 Ways to Make Every Second Count, copywriter Bob Bly suggests these 10 ways:

Ask your boss for more work. Ask her to delegate tasks that will challenge you.

Take on different work. Volunteer to fill a need no one else can or will.

Learn something new. Enroll in a course.

Do something new. Join a local garden club, raise money for PETA, or go to Toastmasters.

Become active in your field. Join a professional association or teach at a local college.

Restructure your job. Make that extra work you took on the new core of your job.  

Confront greedy coworkers. Call out people who hog all the challenging tasks.

Switch departments. Apply for a transfer or promotion.

Change employers. Make the leap. 

Change fields. Do something else.

My advice goes a little farther.

First, don't be shocked if you find finding your work slow, arduous and low-wage. “If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it would not seem so wonderful at all," Michelangelo once said.

Second, you might also find finding your work dangerous. Career adviser Scott Dinsmore, while pursing his passion, was killed by a falling rock on Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Third, don't forget to consider the market. If you want a safe bet, go to coding camp; or become an altruist, as career adviser Benjamin Todd recommends.

Events' Uneventful Downfall

Humankind's oldest, events remain, if not the cheapest, the best marketing channel.

But CMOs aren't keen on them, according to a report by The CMO Club.

While 7 of every 10 CMOs surveyed say events accelerate sales, 2 of every 3 say events aren't measurable; and 7 of 10 say events' "accountability gap" throws into question the event spend.

The accountability gap "creates challenges at budget time when the funding decisions are being made about events," according to the report. 

"While events are deemed critically important, they often lack the supporting financial data to objectively prove their value. Compared to other components of the CMO’s marketing mix that have become more sophisticated in measuring ROI, event marketers are lagging in their ability to connect the dots between activities and demonstrated results."

The accountability gap also makes choice difficult―the chief reason companies exhibit in the same events repeatedly, complaining all the while about lack of ROI.

What's a marketer to do? The report suggests you should:

Set unique goals for each event. "Not all events have the same purpose," the report says. "Some are designed to generate new leads and accelerate opportunities currently in the pipeline, while others are focused on strengthening relationships with key customers and gaining feedback to improve how marketers can better respond to their needs." Setting unique goals "will create a foundation for capturing the appropriate data to analyze the events against the stated objectives."

Create unique plans for each event. "Silos" often prevent cooperation between marketing and sales, pre-, at-, and post-event. Preparing written plans will knock down the silos and encourage both groups to capture relevant data.

Deliver an experience. This is mandatory. Quit simply checking boxes. Pick up the phone and call people before every event, be ready with a strong value proposition, and deliver it on site. If your event isn't an experience, it's a waste of time.

Feed your marketing automation and CRM systems. "Rarely are events judged on the revenue produced at that event," the report notes. "Opportunities discovered at the event take time to close and require significant post-event nurturing from marketing and follow-up from sales." Unless you import event data into your marketing automation and CRM systems, you can't track results.

Measure both activities and sales impact. Data captured at events should demonstrate ROI, not just reflect a bunch of activities. Ask your CMO to help you create C-suite-appropriate reports.

If events don't become a measurable marketing channel, they'll continue to be seen as a grievous expense, rather than an income-producing asset, the report concludes.

That could be their downfall.

Every Service Failure Levels the Playing Field

A mammoth corporation like this―it embodies too much experience. 

It possesses in fact a sort of group mind.

― Philip K. Dick

Organizational theorists believe every big business is a collective mind, and that performance "depends on coordinating the distributed knowledge and activities of the collective’s members."

When a big business screws up a simple transaction―more and more the norm―it obliterates the value of that vast, collective mind―opening the way for a small business to steal the disaffected customer.

Execs should think about that when tempted to cut more corners on talent, technology and time-frames.

All the money, bravado and best-practice babble in the world won't make you stronger than your weakest link.

Unbodied by Books

I am unbodied by thy books, and thee, and in thy papers find my ecstasy.

— Henry Cornelius Agrippa

Your worldview—your set of beliefs and assumptions about reality—is bred in your teens, according to psychologists.

Mine were filled with the usual distractions—schoolwork, buddies, rock music, substances, girls, urban adventures—and books.

The four that more than any other formed my worldview were all written by men, and all in the 20th century. I can't say precisely why they made such a mark on me, but I'll describe the mark they made.

Portnoy's Complaint (Philip Roth, 1969). I was born in Newark, New Jersey (the novel's setting), so I just had to read what The New Yorker was labeling in 1969 "one of the dirtiest books ever published." Roth blew my 16-year-old mind. I learned from the novel the adult world wasn't too different than my own. Everyone felt childish. Everyone felt inadequate. Everyone felt guilty. Everyone felt trapped. If he didn't, he was a schmuck.

Catch-22 (Joseph Heller, 1961). A high-school English teacher assigned this novel. I still remember he called it "an existential picaresque." The novel showed me the system was a racket run by preening half-wits; the rules were cruel and absurd and made up by self-serving hustlers; and the good died young. I was 17, a year from the draft and a possible tour in Vietnam.

The Sound and the Fury (William Faulkner, 1929). Another English teacher assigned Faulkner's family saga, considered by the author his personal favorite and by many other writers as the best American novel of the 20th century. The Sound and the Fury showed me at age 18 that myths, secrets and "family politics" can condemn you.

Being and Time (Martin Heidegger, 1927). I encountered Heidegger's masterwork in college. From it I learned in painstaking detail why we're so crazy, fragile and nervous: we're all bozos on this bus, and it's heading for a cliff. Being is time and time is finite, Heidegger makes clear. Or, as Samuel Beckett wrote, "They give birth astride of a grave, the light gleams an instant, then it's night once more."

Which books formed your worldview?

Reading is Fungible

An investment in knowledge pays the best interest. 

— Benjamin Franklin

According to Pew Research Center, 47% of adult Americans read every day keep up with current events; 35%, for pleasure; 31%, for work or school; and 29%, to research topics.

The majority who don't read every day—for whatever reason—represent tomorrow's economic losers.

When their jobs are automated, they'll be tossed out on the street, unable to compete even for scut work against their robotic replacements.

It's a simple fact: most highly compensated people read—many for hours at a sitting (Warren Buffet reads five hours a day). They know knowledge—not effort—is the world's new currency.

Not many years from now, knowledge will be the human's value; effort, the robot's. 

People will be paid for their grasp of reality, their foresight, their vocabularies, and their empathy, while robots produce all the products, stock all the shelves, drive all the vehicles, and serve all the coffee. Their effort will be demonetized.

If you want to help someone this holiday season, give him a book. If you're at a loss for titles, check out these bookworms' picks:

• Maria Popova
• Oprah Winfrey
• Barack Obama
• Bill Gates
• Stephen King
• Phillip Roth
• Don Draper