Issue #43

In this issue:

Word to the Whys

"One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important."
Bertrand Russell

"Are you bored with life? Then throw yourself into some work you believe in with all your heart, live for it, die for it, and you will find happiness that you had thought could never be yours."
Dale Carnegie

"One should guard against preaching to young people success in the customary form as the main aim in life. The most important motive for work in school and in life is pleasure in work, pleasure in its result, and the knowledge of the value of the result to the community."
Albert Einstein

"Very few people are ambitious in the sense of having a specific image of what they want to achieve. Most people's sights are only toward the next run, the next increment of money."
Judith M. Bardwick, PhD

"I am the laziest man in the world. I invented all those things to save myself from toil."
Benjamin Franklin

"Opportunity is missed by most because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."
Thomas Alva Edison

"Men of lofty genius are most active when they are doing the least work."
Leonardo da Vinci

"I wish I would have a real tragic love affair and get so bummed out that I'd just quit my job and become a bum for a few years, because I was thinking about doing that anyway."
Jack Handey—author of Deep Thoughts

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Is Work Ethic Genetic?

Think our ancestors were all committed workaholics? Well, it ain't so...

The early adventurers who first found America were not searching for a place to work, but rather for a new Eden where abundance and riches would allow them to escape work and live a life of leisure. The New England Puritans, the Pennsylvania Quakers, and members of other religious sects who eventually settled in America, however, came with no hopes or illusions of a life of ease. To these early settlers, life was all about hard work and determination. They approached the daunting task of building a new world in the wilderness as an opportunity to prove their own self-worth and moral value. The key elements of the Protestant ethic were diligence, punctuality, deferment of gratification, and sacredness of the workplace.

History has proven that an individual's work ethic has little to do with age, and everything to do with his or her core values. Throughout the ages, some work to live, some live to work, and some will go to great lengths to avoid work. However, to build a new world out of the wilderness—or to build a successful business in the new economy—it takes committed employees who possess a solid work ethic and who have a vested interest in the success of the company they work for.

Eighteen months ago, a 50-year-old small business owner attending a trade show conference where I was speaking approached me at the break, shook his head and shrugged his shoulders and said, "I've done everything I can to motivate my Gen Why employees, but the truth is, they just don't give a damn."

This disheartened baby boomer's personal experience had led him to the conclusion that it was against the laws of science and nature for anyone under the age of 25 to care about—or be committed to—their company or the institution they are a part of. Preposterous generality, but this man was far from alone in his thinking.

I've heard many and managers—as well as many educators—lament similar assertions over the years, but this particular comment got my head spinning. Later that evening in my hotel room, I took out a fresh legal pad and scribbled down the following: Why is it that so many young people apparently don't give a damn about their jobs, their schools, or the companies they work for — and what can be done about it?

With that premise, I began asking the questions and compiling the answers that became the underpinnings of my newest book, Getting Them to Give a Damn — How to Get Your Front Line To Care About Your Bottom Line (Dearborn 2005). Through it, I've discovered that it is possible to get young employees to take a personal vested interest in the image, the profits, and the long-term success of their employer. I've also learned that work ethic did not vanish with the puritans—and it is not encoded in the genetics of all baby boomers, even though some would tend to argue this point.

I've had the good fortune to observe and work with hundreds of leading employers that have found ways to get heart and soul buy-in from young front line employees. I'm proud to say that this book tells who's doing it, how they're doing it, and it tells their stories and details their strategies.

If you're searching for ways to get your student population to more fully invest themselves in their education, Getting Them to Give a Damn may have some ideas that will turn the lights on for you as the process of writing it did for me. Even though it is targeted for business people, I think the material is relevant for educators who are searching for new ways to connect with today's youth.

The book will be released May 1, but you can take advantage of direct-from-the-publisher presale discounts today. Go here to learn more.

Even better, as a thank you, and special preview, to my Whys News readers I have secured a limited number of Give A Damn "mini-books" from my publisher; these are miniature versions of my book consisting of the cover and first chapter. I will mail each reader who requests one a copy. Please email me your request, including a physical, mail address, to info@generationwhy.com. Enter Mini-book Offer in the subject.

Whys Cracks

GANG-ING UP ON A PATRIOT: Raven Furbert, 12, has four relatives in the military stationed in Iraq, including her uncle. To help her remember them, she wore a patriotic red, white and blue necklace, a Christmas gift. But officials at Mont Pleasant Middle School in Schenectady, N.Y., told her the beaded necklace is contrary to the school's dress code, which bans "gang-related" clothing. They said if she continued to wear it in any visible place, she would be suspended. When they discovered she was wearing the beads hidden—not visible—they told her to remove them. Furbert's mother, Katie Grzywna, says the girl was previously a good student, but is now frequently targeted for detention, so she has filed a federal lawsuit against the school. "I'll be really glad when this is all over," Raven says. "I just want to wear them for my uncle" in Iraq. (Albany Times-Union)
...Who, if you asked him, would say he's there to fight for our freedoms.

CAPED PRESCRIBER: Anders Mjelle, 22, is studying in Norway to become a pediatrician. While "practicing his signature during a prescription class," he realized his signature "just wasn't as cool as doctor signatures usually are," he says. "So I tried signing with the name to my old hero of heroes, Batman. That was much better." So much better that he has legally changed his middle name to Batman. "I believe being called Batman can definitely be something positive." (Aftenposten)
"Holy Prozac, Robin! Grab the deliberator and head to the Batcave!"

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