One day early in my career I was looking for new office space. I found myself looking at a nice space in Beverly Hills that had been recently leased by some young turks (small “t”). They had taken a bit more space than they needed and were looking for a sub-tenant to take over one of the offices.
As he was taking me on a tour, the turk explained to me how he and his partners conducted business. He said, “we work hard and we play hard”. Even though I was going to be a tenant, not a partner or employee, I got the feeling he wanted to see if I was a good fit.
He didn’t elaborate but something told me I wasn’t a good fit. I don’t know what “playing hard” meant to them but I’m pretty sure it didn’t mean they played a lot of chess. Don’t laugh. I like playing chess. A lot.
Anyway, this morning, when I was in the rain room, I recalled this exchange and thought I would ask what you think about this whole work vs. play business.
Here’s my take on it.
To me, work means doing things you don’t want to do. Play means the opposite. My entire method of operation is to try to do as much of what I want to do and as little of everything else.
In other words, my ideal would be no work and all play.
That doesn’t mean goofing off. It doesn’t mean the absence of accomplishment.
It means eliminating or doing less of the things I don’t like or am not good at. I do that by delegating those tasks to someone else or finding creative ways to run my business and personal affairs so as to avoid or minimize them.
We weren’t put here to endure, we were put here to enjoy. There is no virtue in hard work for hard work’s sake.
Anyway, what do you think? How do you define work and play? And do you work hard and play hard or, like me, do your best to enjoy the journey? Let me know in the comments.
By the way, when I called back the next day to ask if I could take another look at the office, the turk told me they had rented it. I was pretty sure that was not true. I think they discriminated against me because I wasn’t cool. I don’t know what gave me away. It couldn’t have been my fez because fezzes are cool.
Hard work means three clients in a row, just in the morning.
Even though I love what I do, too much of a good thing can be stressful.
Most times though, it’s play. It’s fun to pick up a check for $10,000.00, but that means you have to come through on what you promised.
I think people who work hard and play hard are just driven, usually by a goal to make money.
It’s essential to make money, but you need to stop and smell the roses, possibly in England.
Appreciate your newsletter,
Thanks,
Bill Wais
I just want to say that I LOVE this question! Much as I don’t detest President Obama, although he has disappointed me in some ways, I twice voted for him, BUT … I do have a pet peeve with his refrain that ‘hard work’ is the ticket and cure for everything that ails us today. I won’t try to explain why, but I feel it is elitist. More immportantly, it’s bogus as many people are working their heads off and barely getting by while others do nothing and thrive. The hardest work, I think is to dare to pursue your true dreams and give yourself permission to pursue them and not get dragged under by the undertow of b.s. that says you can’t, that would be too much ‘fun’ when what you need to do is work hard and suffer.
I have always felt that David Ward’s blog posts are as great as they are because he writes the things that are floating around in my head but I don’t think to put them into words. Now I come to find that David Ward’s blog posts encourage comments from others that are really fantastic. Simply put, the last sentence of Jean’s comment hits the nail right on the head as to what the hardest work really is – way to go David and Jean!
Thank you, Clint.