Andreas Widmer argues that compassionate leadership, creativity, and meaningful work are essential to building companies that create enduring value. He frames work itself as intrinsically valuable to human dignity and social prosperity.
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This is optimal Startup Daily Episode 689 an excerpt from the book the Art of Principled Creating Enduring Value by Andreas Widmer. And I am Dan. I'm your host and your narrator, and today I'm going to do something a little bit different. It's not going to be a post from a blog, it's actually going to be an excerpt from a book that I'm going to read to you. And of course I'll tell you about the author right after I'm done. So for now, let's get right to it and start optimizing your life. An excerpt from the book the Art of Principled Creating Enduring Value by Andreas Widmer I know it sounds unconventional to bring love into the conversation when talking about building a company, but it's well worth it. It's important that not just your customers feel loved. It's a game changer for employees as well. Giving others the chance to be creative, to actualize their potential is is to truly want their good. To do outstanding work, you first need love. You cannot do good work in a hostile environment. And this is not an outdated sentiment. Whole Foods used to have a set of management principles that begin with love. We're talking about the compassionate kind of love, like empathy. What matters are the small things because they add up. Think of random acts of kindness supported by a company structure. Creation is a team sport. No individual can sustainably invent, produce, market and sell its products alone. Alone, it is not just physically impossible, but also impossible in terms of expertise. Each one of us has a certain natural talent reinforced by training that makes us more excellent at a certain job than many others. What is required of us is a contribution mentality so that we seek the common good of our team, our customer, and society in all we do. It's not about getting something out of the work or not. We ought to be rewarded for our excellent work and profit from our business. That's what distinguishes it from a hobby. But the intrinsic focus is not on getting the largest reward. Rather, it's on adding value and contributing to the greater good. Have you ever considered that work is creative? The act of creating is what work is all about. Seeing a need for a new or better product or service and innovating to meet that need. We usually call that entrepreneurship, but turning an idea into reality should be a part of any work. Have you ever been unintentionally unemployed for any length of time? The suffering you experience goes beyond a lack of income, which would already be bad enough. What you feel most Profoundly is a loss of dignity, a kind of meaninglessness. You feel like a piece of your humanity is missing. This happens even when you receive unemployment benefits. Having a job or career that you enjoy is one of your most fundamental desires. According to recent Pew research, it is more important to teens than helping others or getting married. That feeling varies over a lifetime, but what this indicates is the innate desire you have for meaningful work of some kind. We are not meant not to work. If you don't work, whatever form that takes, you suppress an aspect of your humanity. There's a danger in looking at work only as a way to make money. Ignoring the deeper meaning and purpose of work has negative consequences. As Tomas Chamorro Prumusic wrote in the Harvard Business Review, quite simply, you are more likely to like your job if you focus on the work itself, and less likely to enjoy it if you're focused only on the money. When we do not work and do not work joyfully, we lose a key aspect of our humanity. I've seen the same thing happen to people who stopped working because they had made a financial fortune. We wither away without work because in working, the path is the goal and the goal is the path. Work is a transcendent aspect of our humanity. When we work, we don't just make more, we become more. Think of the famous NASA. I'm not mopping the floors, I'm putting a man on the moon. We may dream of super efficiency and automation, but the truth is that the more money people earn, the more hours they work. The poor are the ones who face chronic underemployment. They're the ones who face involuntary 15 hour work weeks and five day weekends. And as a result, they suffer mentally, socially and financially. Working so little is not something people choose to do. It's often a situation they're trying to escape. There is no substitute for work, because it is an essential part of who we are. Everyone deserves to work and ought to have the opportunity to work. Principled entrepreneurs recognize that this is essential for a free and prosperous economy. When our work satisfies an important customer need, we benefit not only the consumer, but ourselves as well. We get great satisfaction from the work, from the other directed process of helping our customers. We also enjoy the collaboration within our company, our team. It makes us grow as a person. One of the key results of avoiding work is that we no longer create new value. When that happens, we compromise our own freedom and social mobility. Creating value is akin to creating new money. When we no longer create wealth, the economy becomes a zero sum proposition and we have to resort to redistributing the wealth that already exists. Unfortunately, this is becoming an attractive solution to many. You just listened to an excerpt from the book the Art of Principled Creating Enduring Value by Andreas Widmer and thank you to our author today. Andreas Andreas E. Widmer is an Associate professor of Entrepreneurship and the Director of the Art and Carlis Chaka center for Principled Entrepreneurship at the Catholic University of America's Bush School of Business. Previously, he co founded the Seven Fund, a philanthropic organization promoting enterprise solutions to poverty. Widmer is a seasoned business executive with experience in high tech, international business strategy consulting and economic development. He served as CEO of the business strategy firm OTF Group, formerly part of the Monitor Group, and helped lead web content management pioneer Eprise Corporation, speech recognition pioneer Dragon Systems, and Internet pioneer FTP Software. He's worked extensively in the us, Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America, has brought more than 100 leading edge technology products to market, and was an Executive in Residence at Highland Capital Partners. You can find the Art of Principle and Entrepreneurship on Amazon and a big thanks again to Andreas for letting us share his work and that'll do it for today. I thank you for listening and being a subscriber to this show. Have yourself a great day and I'll see you back here tomorrow where your optimal life awaits.
