Most of us, I’m sure, are familiar with the aphorism “Do what you love, and you’ll never work another day in your life.” However, while I couldn’t agree more, I don’t think these words do justice to the importance of work. Maybe it’s because I’m the latest in a long line of New Englanders, but I think Robert Frost comes closer to the mark in his poem “Two Tramps in Mud Time,” in which he writes:
But yield who will to their separation,
My object in living is to unite
My avocation and my vocation
As my two eyes make one in sight.
Only where love and need are one,
And the work is play for mortal stakes,
Is the deed ever really done
For Heaven and the future’s sakes.
I found myself pondering these words as I was reading Our Success Group founder Aaron Montgomery’s new book, “The FUNdamentals of Business Success,” a primer on how to grow a business not just as means of earning of living but fulfilling your potential as an individual. In his book, Montgomery talks a lot about having fun. However, his idea of fun is anything but frivolous, being in many ways the key to ultimate success.
It also got me thinking how lucky we all are to be part of an industry in which one’s avocation and vocation are so easily matched: an industry that doesn’t come easy, but in which love and need truly are one in a way other professions can only dream of. Food for thought during that next grueling production run!
Updated Sept. 12, 2024
