I've been really inspired today reading Mintzberg's article[1] about selfishness. It seems to me that he raises incredibly important questions about the values in our world. Maybe it will be my first step into understanding the balance of business, money, contribution to society and my own role in this world as a grown-up.
I find that many views are oversimplified by common opinion, which makes most of the views just "uncommon nonsense"[2]. The definitions of a human being as a consumer of goods, a creature with unsatisfied needs was amazingly wittingly mocked in "Monday Begins On Saturday"[3] and is still very vivid in my mind.
I guess over the past year I've lost a lot of important feelings - and it caused me to lose the sense of living itself. My world should be large, otherwise it becomes cheap. I want to be able to give and feel responsibility and know that each day had some value. And I feel that I need to get back my internal integrity, maybe it was good that it was shaken - it should come back stronger.
Individualism is good, but it should be part of the society. Society should have values and protect them. I can't think of myself disconnected from the environment - I am nobody without the people around me and I can't achieve much on my own.
It is important to view the business as part of the contribution into this world - what we create at work is the most part that we can give to the society. Job is not a way to make money, it is a way to contribute something that I can do well, so that others will contribute into my life. I guess it should be a day to day question: does it make sense to do what I do? Should I do it differently? Should I not do it at all? It makes sense to live the life after all :-)
References:
[1] Mintzberg, H., Simons, R. and Basu, K. (2002) Beyond Selfishness, MIT Sloan Management Review, 44(1), pp. 67-74.
[2] L.Carrol "Alice in Wonderland"
[3]STRUGAT︠S︡KIĬ, A. N., & STRUGAT︠S︡KIĬ, B. N. (1978). Monday begins on Saturday. New York, Daw Books.
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