The Moral Virtue of Self-Interested Work

It is wonderful to give to and help others. We are appreciated when we give to others through charity, volunteer work or other acts of kindness. And rightly so. When we help another person in some way, it creates a spirit of goodwill, and it’s one of the single most important acts we can do for our happiness.

What’s often overlooked is how much consciousness, caring, time, money and energy we already put into significantly helping other people every day – just through the work we do.

Every hour we’ve spent in the classroom, at an internship and at work is an hour we’ve spent honing and perfecting our skills. Every dollar we’ve spent on tuition, books, seminars and travel is a dollar we’ve spent investing in our ability to do our work well.

And every ounce of energy we’ve spent thinking, worrying, creating and sweating through difficult times is an ounce of energy that increases our ability to provide a product or service to another human being.

It’s popular to dismiss all of this work by saying we are doing it for the money; as though earning money cheapens our efforts, and makes our efforts base, selfish, or materialistic.

But earning a living from what we do makes it possible and reasonable for us to do it. When demagogues lecture young college graduates to forego making money and do something else to help people, they are telling them that what we do to make money does not help people.

This, of course, is the exact opposite of the truth.

Money is the great measure of value. That some people get rich through deceit, fraud, or the use of political power and manipulation does not negate the fact that most of us make our livings doing something that is of value to other people – and to enough other people that the aggregate of what they pay allows us to afford those things we need and want.

The contractor we hired to remodel our house a few years back was not simply willing to hammer some nails to help us out in our time of need. He makes his living doing what he does. We paid him a lot of money, and in return we got all his skill, experience, knowledge and familiarity with the subcontractors. We got accountability that there would be a finished product we were happy with. The work he did continues to add to our quality of life every single day.

He didn’t do this as a sacrifice; it was the most moral and benevolent of human interactions: it was an exchange.

Our daughter and son’s high school choir director made a positive impact on their life. He is a real professional, with a wealth of knowledge about music, performance, technique, orchestration and teaching. He’s one of those people they’ll look back on as a central influence in their early lives.

He’s dedicated his entire life to the study, performance and teaching of music. This is how he makes his living, and we paid money to the private school where he teaches in large part because he is there.

Think of the work you do. How many hundreds or thousands of hours have you invested in learning the skills you use? How many years have you spent practicing those skills to earn the level of competence you bring to your work today?

This is what you give back to the world each and every day, without even thinking about it.

If you run a business, you provide the goods or services people want. Whether that’s manufacturing vitamins, making equipment, teaching, mining minerals, drilling for oil or selling real estate, you provide a service to others that wouldn’t otherwise be there.

If you work as a software engineer, a roofing contractor or a salesperson, you are doing something that adds to the problem-solving capacity of your community.

If you work in marketing, music, medicine or manufacturing, you’re adding to the quality of life of other people every single day you work.

For some of us, work is just a job – something we do because it pays the bills. For some, it’s something they get absorbed in, and they enjoy using the skills they have honed. For others, work is a genuine calling – something they must do, something they feel a profound sense of purpose in doing.

This last scenario is a wonderful thing. It allows us to put everything we have into the work we do, and to feel deeply satisfied in the process.

But whether work is a calling or a paycheck, it’s still what we spend a lot of our waking life engaged in. And that demands a level of practice and commitment that’s hard to equal.

Lately, as I drive by businesses in town, I pay attention to those that are closed. Whether they’re businesses I’ve used or not, I feel a sense of loss. There’s one more possibility that doesn’t exist.

My profession of psychotherapy and life coaching is considered a “helping” profession. I love what I do, and I’m proud of the work I do. But I’ve got news for anybody who sorts professions into tight terms: every profession is a helping profession.

In the market, if you’re not helping somebody do something they want or need to do, then you won’t make a living.

If you want to feel how much good there is in the world through people’s day-to-day work, just imagine any of your favorite businesses… gone.

Imagine your favorite grocery store closed. Imagine that pizza place that you take for granted shut down. Imagine your doctor has closed his or her practice. Imagine no new computer when yours finally crashes, no good place to take your car for repairs, nothing interesting on radio or TV, no gas for your car, no fruit or vegetables or meat for your meals…

Then you can begin to appreciate how much good is brought to us each and every day by people doing nothing more altruistic than their self-interested pursuit of a good living.

Help people. Be kind, empathetic and generous in your life. Such an attitude is heartfelt; it brings a deeply meaningful spirit to ourselves and the people around us. Kindness and empathy are core virtues, and they create an essential benevolent cycle.

But never lose sight of the incalculable good we are already bringing through what we regularly do to earn money. Kindness, empathy and generosity are qualities that good work asks of us, and this benevolence is part of the joy we get to feel at work.

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