The Ethic of Work….A Lesson not Taught in School?
Principle #1: The Ethic of Work….A Lesson not Taught in School?
Undoubtedly when you learn about successful people…you find that their success is not an accident and they have at least one thing in common…they are no stranger to work.
In fact, they love their work. That’s not to say they don’t get tired, or discouraged, or even fed up at times. It happens to everybody. But down deep inside, they have learned to love their work. Continuous, long-term success…the kind that lifts us above temporary setbacks and disappointments is born from a principle that is best learned in youth.
The Ethic of Work is an aggregation of several, simple principles that when combined create an unbeatable combination leading us to success in any endeavor.
In the book “Pushing Brooms with Jack”, Jack as the mentor teaches the young Pete an important principle…that hard work brings its own rewards. This is not a principle learned in a book…it is a principle best taught us through valuable life lessons. One of the concepts vital for our youth to learn to succeed through life and its varied challenges is for them to create their own “Ethic of Work”. This personal principle will be a key to their future success in everything they do.
Underlying this key concept are several fundamental principles:
- Honest labor is its own reward.
- Financial success is within the reach of every honest worker.
- Financial success is not only a factor of how much you earn.
- Every job upon completion is a self-portrait of the person who did it.
- There truly is “no such thing as a free lunch”.
- Pride in performance is a good thing and motivates us to even greater accomplishments.
In the book, Jack takes pride in his work and the tools that help him be successful. He makes an important point to his young apprentice that it is the attitude towards your work that makes all the difference.
As a janitor, the inexperienced Pete can only think of his job as menial, repetitive, and drudgery. Jack shows him a more valuable and view. Jack’s image of his work is one of making a clean and orderly environment for future leaders to learn and develop in. With that positive view, his personal efforts and performance are validated and enlarged beyond the activity itself.
Jack teaches Pete that discovering the noble purpose behind the job helps us to see and lift our own nobility as we perform the service.
To further this point, Jack then illustrates the value of the primary tool of his labors…a simple push broom. Made by the Fuller Brush Company, this broom is a trusted companion as he labors to complete his tasks.
The motto of the company is simple, and is representative of the values supporting the quality of the broom…
- Make it Work.
- Make it Last.
- Guarantee it No Matter What.
Simple words with a huge impact. It’s no wonder that the Fuller Brush Company became the leader in door-to-door product sales for decades. What if everybody approached their personal work ethic using the above statements as their personal standard of performance? If we were to write our personal work motto today…what would it say?
Embracing a noble motto and ethic will drive the qualities and performance for ourselves and our children as we “autograph our work with excellence”.
Jack’s Wisdom Publishing is thankful for the example of Alfred Fuller, who at age 21 took the concept of being the best and created the Fuller Brush Company…starting with only some handmade brushes, a fiber attaché case, and the personal ethic to be the best