Hard work will define the TwentyFirst century
THIS WEEK I spoke at Deutsche Telekom’s Innovation Day in Berlin, celebrating the fifth year anniversary of its Innovation Labs. The theme was Connected Life and Work, and there were a lot of interesting discussions about work-life imbalance in the future.
One of the speakers said that the rest of society would learn from workaholics – who tend to love their work – that work without joy is unacceptable.
The fusion of work and life will continue; we can see this already in the under-30s generation who don’t compartmentalise their life.
But the pièce de résistance came from Ze Frank, a well-known satirist in the US that pens articles for Time magazine, who brought home how the internet is connecting us all.
Ray, a middle-aged man in the heartland of the US, wrote a song for his daughter who had called him in distress about her job. Ray didn’t really know what to do to give her comfort, but he wrote her a song that she could sing when she was frustrated.
Then he thought that he could share the song with all suffering employees worldwide, so he put it on the web.
The song goes:
I’m about to whip somebody’s ass;
Ohhh, I’m about to whip somebody’s ass;
Oh if you don’t leave me alone;
You’re going to have to send me home;
Cause I’m about to whip somebody’s ass.
YOUTUBE HUNT
The song travelled around the world – thanks to the net, and can be readily found on YouTube. Ze Frank picked it up, and became determined to find its composer, Ray.
Inside a week, he found the man – knowing just the song and nothing more.
Life is all about connections, and the web is simply another means of connecting, but one with exponential growth and the power to amplify a linear thought.
Encountering a lazy colleague or a horrendous boss can make us feel lonely. Connecting to all other suffering employees in the world makes us feel connected and powerful.
I see a lot of people in my line of work who are quite smart, but sometimes lazy. There is an internal contradiction between having ability and being disciplined enough to work hard.
Most people have no idea how hard they will have to work to achieve something important in their life.
There will be different speeds in the workforce in the future. Talented and hard working people will rise to the top.
People who want to work less will drive more slowly, and live a different style life – no matter how smart they are.
The commitment to hard work will be a defining characteristic of the 21st Century.
Julie Meyer is chief executive of Ariadne Capital.