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Dear August,
I just read your article in Forbes and am very impressed. I have one question. Isn’t it valid to think “Sure, give me an unpaid workforce and tax-free facilities and I’ll be just as successful,” and dismiss the ‘Business Secrets of the Trappists’ as being irrelevant for the real world?
Best,
Andrew
Dear Andy,
Thanks for the kind words and the incisive comment. As to the first part concerning an “unpaid workforce” I would just turn the point around. Why do the monks have an unpaid workforce in the first place? Because they inspire people to work for room and board. The unpaid workforce is not a “given,” it is something the monastery “earns” and must “earn” each and every day by supplying a mission so inspirational that people will work for it with little by the way of material compensation.
This is not so unusual. I’m sure there are plenty of young people who would work for NASA for free or for Apple. In fact, Mepkin would not survive a week without the volunteers like me who come for the OPPORTUNITY to work for free. As I said in the article, we all leave feeling like we got more than we gave. I’m working in New York right now for a company full of kids under 30. The CEO and his partner are both about 27. Everyone there is killing themselves working 16 hour days because they BELIEVE in the mission—a mission that is both embodied and well articulated by the founders. For the first time in years, I look forward to going to work and have to tear myself away at 9 at night in order to get enough sleep. The atmosphere is electric. Anyone working there could make more money and work fewer hours somewhere else and college kids are lining up to work as unpaid interns this summer.
As for the “tax-free” facilities, there are millions of non-profits around and very few of them inspire the way Mepkin does. Besides, as a long time business exec and entrepreneur, I know that taxes never make or break a business unless they become confiscatory.
Thanks again for your comments. I am so flattered that my article inspired you.
August
What do I do?
Evaluate your mission and what motivates you. Then ask yourself, “Is this a high enough mission?” Reconstruct if necessary. If you feel the passion, your colleagues will too.
Don’t figure it out, find out:
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Remember that profit is an increase in value and satisfaction in any exchange; both parties should be more satisfied or gain an increase in value. Read as Turak defines profit regardless of the type of organization or individual.
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Make a list of the things you resist doing and begin doing them. Read how Turak suggests that you overcome the resistance that creeps up even when you are doing your best to live up a mission or higher purpose.
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Be less selfish even when it isn’t easy. Learn what Turak had at stake and what he lost by being dedicated to a higher mission and taking the transformational journey that turned him from a selfish to selfless person.
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Rethink how you run your life and business. Dan Pink makes a hardheaded, evidence-based case for rethinking how we run our businesses. Watch as he reveals the disconnect between what behavioral science knows and what business does.
What missions have directly or indirectly inspired you? What is your mission in life? Why?