On Work

In effort is happiness.

It is said that if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life. There is some truth to this maxim. I’m what I call a jackleg worker bee. I can handle a lot of different tools, though I’m not highly trained in one discipline. This is, admittedly, a shortcoming when it comes to earning potential, but before you get all hoity-toity, let me say that the best way to make a lot of money is to manage other people who excel at what you don’t.

Not that I’m here to impart secondhand business advice. I’m here to talk shop. Perhaps my top asset as a human being is my work ethic, but it is also a ball-and-chain in ten feet of water and no boat, because given something to do that sufficiently occupies my mind and body, I just go at it. Every abstract ambition I come to the task with dies an oxygenless death. Got ten cords of wood you need? On it. Garden weeded? On it. Some orchard trees pruned? On it. Elk packed out? On it. If only I could bring a shovel and a chainsaw to Wall Street…