When was the last time you felt a palpable sense of pride? While life provides many such opportunities, work offers a unique, surprisingly powerful, and scientifically-supported fountain of fulfillment—regardless of the kind of work we do.
In the etymology of the word itself, we find two clues as to why: “work” is a combination of wyrcan, meaning “to set in motion,” and wircan, meaning “to strive after.” Whether we work for ourselves, a company, our family, or our community, the practice of setting things in motion, and striving after them, generates the gifts of opportunity, agency, and growth.
The Today Show just aired an inspiring example. Sam Bier is a bright and energetic young man from New Jersey. Since his teenage years, he had one seemingly simple goal: to land a job.
Even though Sam’s autism diagnosis meant he approached life a bit differently, he knew he could contribute with the right opportunity. But along with 85 percent of autistic adults who experience unemployment, 24-year-old Sam started to feel his dream slipping away.
Then one day, Sam’s dad Steve had an epiphany while passing a popcorn store with a “For Sale” sign outside: paired with Sam’s passion and talent, America’s favorite snack could become…popcorn with a purpose.
Six years later, the Bier family’s nonprofit Popcorn for the People employs 30 autistic adults, providing each person the opportunity to succeed through work, while deepening their dignity and self-reliance in the process.
Take 25-year-old Patrick Wimmer. Four years ago, he refused to leave his mother’s side. Now, he’s a star employee, proudly bragging about his impressive popcorn production metrics. “He loves coming [to work],” his mom raves, in awe of how independent her son has become.
The Bier family’s story shows us that work can be one of the greatest forces for personal transformation.
As a fourth-generation entrepreneur, I see this in my own family history. After emigrating from Germany, my maternal great-grandfather found a job at a dairy farm in Valders, Wisconsin. Years later, he scraped together enough to purchase that farm. And with my great-grandmother and their 12 children, they worked together to realize their American Dream.
When my paternal grandfather was discharged as a master sergeant after World War II, he returned home to Bay City, Michigan to join his father’s plumbing and heating company. Becoming a co-owner of the business gave him an identity and the independence to build a middle-class life for his family.
Then, in the mid-1980s, my mom was searching for a job that would let her spend more time with me as a single mother. Unable to find such an opportunity, she decided to create her own—and started the first company in the U.S. that trained, certified, and placed nannies in the homes of single and working parents.
Despite having little background as an entrepreneur, my mom taught herself staffing, billing, operations, marketing, and selling. She set her venture in motion, she strived, she grew—and she thrived (even being profiled in Time Magazine!). Her business generated countless opportunities—not just for the two of us, but for all 25 people who worked there.
All of this helped forge one of my key beliefs: that people transform business, and business transforms people.
Does this mean our work won’t bring us stress and aggravation? Of course not. But those very pressures also offer opportunities to meet our three core human needs: enhancing our skills creates competence; overcoming our challenges advances autonomy; and showing our value builds belonging.
But because the reverse can be true with experiences like bullying, overwork, or mismanagement, cultivating a culture of dignity is a central responsibility for leaders (as well as a source of competitive advantage).*
Accordingly, as companies begin to reimagine the future of work, our conversations must be broader than the mechanics of returning to the office. Leaders need to ask: how can we redesign our workplaces as a more positive force for growth, agency, and physical and mental health?
At an individual level, we each have the opportunity to reflect on the role work has played in our lives this past year. No matter what your experience has been, you’ll most likely find a few pride-worthy moments of agency, growth, or transformation.
After all, as French philosopher Antonin Sertillanges reminds us, “the reward of a work is to have produced it; the reward of effort is to have grown by it.”
Here’s to an even better future of work: one where we can all experience the transformative power of setting things in motion, striving, growing, and thriving.
Dr. Tasha Eurich
is an organizational psychologist, speaker and The New York Times bestselling author of Bankable Leadership. Her latest book, Insight, delves deeper into the meta-skill of the modern world: self-awareness. Tasha’s life’s work is to help organizations succeed by improving the effectiveness of their leaders and teams. With a ten-year track record in the Fortune 500 world, her expertise has been featured in outlets like The New York Times, Huffington Post, Entrepreneur and Forbes.
