Business Bricks

Alex Smith says:
A very interesting article, Matt. I write as a former careers adviser who tried to help people to find work they would love and as someone who really loves what he does. I honestly sometimes do what I do for nothing just for the joy of doing it. There is a very interesting book on this with an associated website. The book is “Authentic Happiness” by Martin EP Seligman and the webiste is www.authentichappiness.com. Visitors to the website can do a variety of “tests” to measure their happiness but particularly relevant to this discussion is the “Signature Strengths” test. Essentially, Professor Seligman says that we should do work which uses our signature strengths but he also says that if we cannot change our work we should find a way of doing our work which makes use of our signature strengths. Professor Seligman also differentiates the various kinds of happiness, for example ecstasy and contentment.Finally on the theme of unpleasant jobs, such as domestic service. In recent years I have had clients who set up “domestic service” businesses because they loved the tasks. One was a young man who set up his own ironing business because he found ironing therapeutic. He had to give up the business when he moved to another area with his partner but told me that as soon as he could he would start again in the new area. I also have two women clients who run an office and domestic cleaning business in Glasgow because they love cleaning. They get a great buzz from seeing something go from the grubby to the sparkling.
by Alex Smith on 30 Jan