Work
Recently, I was thinking about my relationship with work, and how that has changed.
When I was in EDB, I often wondered and thought about striking it out. I was constantly frustrated with what-I-perceived-to-be-bureaucratic-stupidity (not from my EDB colleagues, to be clear, but often from other parts of government: that’s why an ex-EDB boss often referred to other public servants as ‘bureaucrats’). And when I read ReWork, I dreamt of working in Basecamp, or some where else where the work is done, with high leverage, and minimal BS, and no IM (Instruction Manual: #iykyk).
I also had thoughts about creating my own thing: doing my own business, running my own startup, growing it like all the Paul Graham essays I read.
For a while, I even subscribed to this view:
My company’s mission statement is: Do not go back to full-time employment.
— Daniel Vassallo (@dvassallo) May 15, 2023
After I returned in June from my stay with Ajahn Ganha, I started listening to a lot more of his talks, and he repeatedly talks about the importance of work.
Most importantly, he talks about work as a form of service, which then transforms work into an integral part of the spiritual practice. An example of what he teaches is here, taken from a transcript (see paragraph 13):
So we all have to be happy, but we have to find the real happiness. And the real happiness is not enjoying taste and enjoying the deliciousness of the world. The real happiness is coming when you enjoy your work, when you love, you go to work and you work with happiness. This is where real happiness is coming from. Because you are giving, you are serving, you are renouncing, you develop the Eightfold Path and you are being selfless. Work is for your happiness and happiness is working. If you have happiness when you work, you really enjoy it, you will not be poor.
With my practice after I returned home, it made me realize that, actually, it’s not about my business or work, but how I do my work. “Because you are giving, you are serving, you are renouncing, you develop the Eightfold Path and you are being selfless. Work is for your happiness and happiness is working.”
And it made me realize that everything Ajahn Ganha said (and the Buddhist practice) can be practiced even if I was an employee, not an entrepreneur. There are, in fact, a LOT of advantages of being an employee and NOT an entrepreneur. A lot less risk, and a lot less mental burden. Nowadays, I am constantly thinking about my bottom-line, and wondering if/how I will be able to get the next project. The joke that “a freelancer is someone who hates 40 hour weeks, and who spends 80 hours working, with 40 hours hustling for gigs” is a real one.
So, increasingly, I am less particular about “having to strike it out on my own”, but am more interested in just serving and giving.
Somewhat unfortunately, though, my timing now is perhaps the worst possible timing for a job search. There are now a LOT of people applying for the same few jobs, and as my wife says, “it’s an employer’s market”. So perhaps I will just have to try hustling, as best as I can.
But I admit that it is intensely free-ing, to not have to be an entrepreneur anymore. It frees me up to look at places where I could still serve, whereas in the past I might not have been able to do so.
Started on 24 Sep 24 at 1827hrs.
Finished on 24 Sep 24 at 1827hrs.