Beautiful Work

A belief in work ought to be a thing of beauty. - Malclom Gladwell (in his book Outliers)


This is not the normal time for me to do an expanded post but this simple quote struck me so hard I have to respond at length. 


He says "belief in work", rather than simply saying "work" (with the implication that work is good). What he is saying is that the individual should see work as a thing of beauty and that the observer of those who work as creating and performing meaningful work are creating a thing of beauty. I had a physics professor in college who told me once "There are no lousy jobs, just lousy people who complain about their jobs." He understood. My father told me often "If you want a job that will last forever get a job as a janitor because people will always be dirty and will need to be cleaned up after." He said this without the slightest hint that Janitor was at all a demeaning job. He understood. 


The work you do today may not reward you to your satisfaction. You may want a better paying job; a more rewarding job; but that does not mean the work you do today should not be admired. It may not be the job for you, but that has no relation to the value or beauty of the work the job entails. It should not, under any circumstances, cause you to not think of work as a thing of beauty.