This is a YouTube video titled "Joel tells a story about his boss and the value of work" containing a conversation between Mike Richards and Joe. Mike prompts Joe to share a personal story about a valuable lesson on work he learned from a former boss, emphasizing the importance of humility and dedication in professional tasks. The discussion reflects on work ethic and career growth.
Joe, when we did your podcast way back when, you talked about one of your bosses saying about the value of work, and you were saying about. This was a great example he gave me. Can you talk to these guys and explain what work means?
Yeah. So I. In. In a previous life, I lived in London for three years, running a London treasury center for the company I was with. And at the time, I had an American boss who had come over and was an expat, and we became good friends. She. She was great. She was a great mentor for me early in my career and kind of really gave me a. Maybe a deeper fire for. For treasury in terms of my learning and growth. So one day, I was tasked with a particular task that I didn't really want to do that I thought was probably beneath me and that I could delegate to someone. And so I went into her office complaining about it, not really asking for her advice or what I should do, but just kind of, you know, bitching and moaning. Right? Like, we all do that every once in a while. And, you know, she had. Probably the best life lesson I've learned in terms of work is she looked at me and just really solemnly she said, that's why they call it work. And it was just that reminder of me. It's like, all right, you know, nothing is beneath us, right? If you have the perspective that everything is. You're too good to do everything, and everything should be delegated, I don't really think that's the intention of work. I think we should be willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done. But in that moment, she imparted a ton of wisdom to me that has stuck with me to this day. I have never used that exact phrase with my team since, but it really worked on me that work is work. Work is intended to be hard. It's not intended to be fun, or as much as I like for it to be social, it's not intended to be social. You're there for a purpose, to drive value in your company and move things forward. And that was a really strong life lesson for me at a very kind of early stage in my treasury career that has stuck with me ever since.
