“We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained.”
~Marie Curie (1867–1934)

Wow – that’s a pretty provocative statement to digest.

I mean, the first part I get – we’re gifted for something. Sure thing.

But how about attaining it “at whatever cost”? And this of course from a woman who was fatally poisoned because of her own work.

There’s no doubt in mind that a commitment to Great Work requires some discipline and some sacrifice. That’s part of what’s behind the insight that you must get clear on what you’re saying No to, not just Yes.

And I’d agree that many of us step away from Great Work because of the perceived cost – when in fact part of the reward comes from the effort you put into it. (Chris Brogan has done a fantastic video series on this recently called Overnight Success).

But “at whatever cost” … thems are fighting words.

Where do you think you should draw the line?

]]> http://www.boxofcrayons.biz/2009/11/great-work-quote-57/feed/ 0 http://www.boxofcrayons.biz/2009/11/imagine-leadership/ http://www.boxofcrayons.biz/2009/11/imagine-leadership/#comments Mon, 23 Nov 2009 09:47:56 +0000 Michael http://www.boxofcrayons.biz/?p=3280 Follow Michael Bungay Stanier/@boxofcrayons on Twitter

A fabulous video that gets to the heart of Great Work. Well worth the 6 minutes it takes to watch

Something worth checking out right now.

Quite brilliant.

17 years ago today, my wife and I went on our first date together.

As it so happens, I’m writing this on a train on the way to Oxford, the city in which we met – which makes this day of celebration just a little bit sweeter.

On the one hand, our story is just another one of two people meeting and falling quickly in love.

On the other – I still marvel at the many moments where things went a certain way – and which created the path to our meeting.

My Dad lived in Oxford and went to Oxford University.

I think my Dad is a brilliant and lovely man, and decided early on that I should go to Oxford University too

I told a teacher, Mr Lennox, about that plan when I was 14.

He mentioned that the only way I’d get to Oxford was by winning a Rhodes Scholarship.

I decided to win a Rhodes Scholarship.

In my third year at the Australian National University, I applied to win a Rhodes Scholarship.

I failed utterly, failing even to be asked to the initial interview which, apparently, “everyone gets invited to.”

I spent 2 years licking my wounds.

In my fifth year I reapplied.

In the final interview, the opening question was “You’ve done a degree in English and a degree in Law. Now you’re applying to do a degree in Economics. Can’t you make up your mind?” I answers, “Well…. Yes. And No.” Everyone laughed.

While not smart enough to have deliberately made that joke, I was at least smart enough to realized it was in fact funny, laughed too, relaxed, and had a great interview – and won the Scholarship.

I knew one other person going to Oxford – my mate Dani, also a Rhodes Scholar. He ended up at Merton College.

I hung around Merton College, and got invited to a Halloween Party. I dressed up as a pirate, went to the party, and found one other person dressed as a pirate.

We started talking.

We went out to a dinner together at my college, Hertford College.

Hertford College’s most famous alum is John Donne, the metaphysical poet, and his portrait has pride of place in Hertford’s dining room.

Marcella was writing her PhD thesis on John Donne.

6 weeks later, we were living together.

+++++++++++++

Marcella meantime had an equally moments-of-destiny journey.

After being a photographer, carpenter, filing clerk, pharmacists assistant and puppeteer, she ended up working in a library. Her lack of formal qualifications meant she could go no further – so at the age of 30 she figured out how to go to university, the plan being to get a Dip.Ed and become a teacher.

She did a BA in English, and loved it.

She did a Masters degree, and remained equally passionate.

Her mentor and professor, suggested she do a PhD – and that if she was going to do it, “go big” and apply for the major universities. She applied to Harvard, Cambridge and Oxford, and heard back from just one of them – Oxford.

And so, at the age of 36, she reinvented her life, sold up everything she owned, and came to Oxford – and specifically Merton College.

And she came dressed as a pirate to a Halloween party.

I love the thought that we are masters of our own destiny, and I do think we shape our lives by the choices we make. And it’s impossible to deny that there are moments of destiny time and time again when you take the road less (or more) travelled – and it makes all the difference.

+++++++++++++

I love you Marcella

That’s why I’m so delighted to have spoken to John McWade. For decades he’s been at the forefront of design in publishing.  He currently publishes the brilliant Before & After magazine, which on a regular basis shares practical tips on graphic design. In doing so, he’s drawing on experience that started when he was the very first user of Aldus PageMaker – a program that grew up to become Adobe – and he founded the first desktop publishing company.

In our conversation we cover

• the genius of Apple and their design (and it’s not just their cool gadgets)
• how John knows when a piece of work is complete
• the starting point for any project – design-led or otherwise – and the big question you need to ask
• a fundamental principle of design which you can use in planning everyday life, not just a magazine cover
• John’s three word mantra for brilliant design – and for that matter, Great Work

You can connect with John at www.BAMagazine.com

The interviews are all between 25 and 30 minutes long.
You can either download them here as mp3s, or go to iTunes, type in “Great Work Interviews” and you’ll see them all there.

Listen to my interview with John McWade

If you enjoyed this interview, you’ll also enjoy:

• Chris Guillebeau
• Mike Dooley

The interviews are all between 25 and 30 minutes long.
You can either download them here as mp3s, or go to iTunes, type in “Great Work Interviews” and you’ll see them all there.

So says the tag line for the new Flake ad here in the UK, a picture of the delicious if just-a-little-sweet-for-me-these-days chocolate bar in all its fragile glory up close on the poster.

In the Do More Great Work workshop on Sunday, participants spent time identifying their Great Work Project. It’s a process that for many was about finally owning up to the thing they’ve been wanting to get on with for a while, and there was a noticeable relaxing in the room when they finally surrendered to what it was that was calling them forward.

It’s a spiritual truth repeated and repeated and repeated: stop fighting what’s there and surrender to it.

So to with your Great Work. Find it. Succumb to it.

Or maybe I just like chocolate.

I actually know a little something about corporate mission statements. About a decade ago, my boss at the time was working on a big pharmaceutical merger. He asked me to come up with a this-will-do-for-now mission statement, and I spent about 25 minutes creating some options and zipped it back his way.

Ten years later my words, “help people to do more, feel better and live longer” remain the mission statement of GlaxoSmithKline.

(This remains an enduring mystery to me – why the ‘change management intervention’ that took the least time is the only one I can tangibly point to and say, “Yep, I did that.” Such is life I guess.)

This recent article in Fast Company kicked up the whole conversation again. I certainly agree with their main points – that most mission statements are vague, useless, and have suffered death by lamination.

But they can also be very useful, and in the article Nancy Lubin points to what makes the difference – a goal that’s quantifiable.

How will you know when you’ve done it? What does success really look like? All good questions.

And of course, you don’t need to be a whopping great company to qualify for a mission statement. It works just as well on a personal level.

Here’s mine: “to infect a billion people with the possibility virus.”

I’ve shown you mine. Will you show me yours?

And both these guys point to today’s guest, Robert Fritz, and say he’s a giant in this field. Actually, he’s a giant in two fields.  He spends some of his time working with large organizations.  And he spends some of that time as a composer and creator in the arts field, both making music and making films.  You can see the dual focus by the titles of his books.  One, The Managerial Moment of Truth.  Another, Your Life as Art.

In this wide-ranging discussion we talk about

• How Robert frames Great Work – be true to yourself – and what that real means
• The fact that organizations are amoral – what that means, and in particular what that means to you as a member of that organization
• Why “problem solving” is so seductive for managers – and how it gets in the way of Great Work
• The fundamental design of organizations, why that matters and what their real purpose is (it’s not “shareholder return”)

You can connect with Robert at www.RobertFritz.com

The interviews are all between 25 and 30 minutes long.
You can either download them here as mp3s, or go to iTunes, type in “Great Work Interviews” and you’ll see them all there.

Listen to my interview with Robert Fritz

If you enjoyed this interview, you’ll also enjoy:

• Grahame Maher
• Marshall Goldsmith

I’m on a train heading for London Waterloo.

On my right, sunshine through rag-scraps of cloud, a pale blue sky, puddles shining in the fields.

To my left, a row of houses lit by sunshine and framed by the purple-dark of storm clouds.

It’s like this at work. Put your focus in one direction and all seems well, things are improving, you can see the opportunities and things are trending upwards. Focus somewhere else and you see the on-coming storm with all the disruption and misery it might bring.

Which view is the right one? Do you opt for sunshine or for rain?

I think the answer might live in a story from World War II. If good luck was on their side, those that survived internment camps were not the pessimists (they just gave up) or the optimists (they lost hope when their predictions of an early release didn’t transpire). It was those who were both realists (”I’m in a PoW camp”) and optimistic (”I will one day get out”).

So how are you seeing things right now?

(That all said, I remember reading somewhere that the only people with an accurate view of reality where those of us who are clinically depressed…)

“The walls we build around us to keep sadness out also keep out the joy.”
~ Jim Rohn

Before I married, I was plain Michael Stanier. And being proud of my Celtic origins, I knew the etymology of Stanier: Stone-hewer. So, either like Obelix in the brilliant Asterix series or perhaps like one of those men in the (somewhat tired) anecdote about building a cathedral.

And of course, stone-hewers build walls.

Sitting with this quote on an early morning, I’m thinking of what walls I’ve built.

• My expertise
• My busy-ness
• My style
• My status

What about you? What are your walls? What do they keep out? What do they keep locked away?