Work for Free. Yeah, That’s What I’m Saying.

In this week’s newsletter, I suspect I am being taken to task for…loving work? Or possibly for just being pro-work? If so, guilty as charged. Regardless, I endeavor a non-defensive, level-headed response, yet, unable to help myself, end up offering blanket advice about something else entirely to every breathing person.?

Q: I am laughing writing this to you, of all people, but I’m curious. I have no interest in a “career.” I think work is what you have to do to pay for what you want to do. Honestly, I don’t want your advice. Just your opinion.

A: First of all, I think you should crack open a bottle of champagne and celebrate that you are not one of my children. I can’t imagine what would happen if one of them said this to me. Oh wait, I can.?

Look, you have every right to your attitude. It sounds as if you are not not harming anyone, and I suspect you have found an organization that’s happy to take you as you are. If that’s the case, what can I say, but carry on? I would not want to spend 40 hours a week doing something that left me cold, because life is very short, and even when it isn’t, it’s precious. But at age 63, I have (finally) accepted that not everyone sees the world I do.

But guess what, I want to offer you some advice anyway! Can you stick with me for it? And not just you, but anyone reading this. Because your question made me think of how I spent a recent Monday morning. I was not at “work” work, but I was volunteering, or what is commonly called “giving back,” by moderating a panel about social equity for one of New York’s great public institutions, Central Park Conservancy , which is led by the inimitable public servant, Betsy Smith . (Indeed, here I am, flanked by the great Nichol King of J.P. 摩根 ,?Lynn Novick, Award Winning Documentary Filmmaker, and Peggy Shepard of WE ACT for Environmental Justice .

I will be brief here, because one of my least favorite things in the world is virtue signaling. But I want to make the case to you that even if you don’t like “traditional” work, you find a way in your spare time to work – and work hard – for a cause you love. There must be one of those in your life. Dogs? The environment? Your local library? My point is, you may dislike the work you have to do for money. But I beseech you to find a way to do work for free for something that gives you meaning.

It’s not like I came naturally to volunteering, by the way. Until 40, all I did with my time was job and family. Then, at Jack’s urging, I got involved with Boston Healthcare for the Homeless . Given the cause, I am sure you can understand that fun it was not. But it changed my life, in terms of understanding what I was missing by not being involved with something bigger than my own aspirations. Today, I am on the boards of The Humane Society of the United States (hence the panda and me, canoodling in China) and Scenic Hudson, Inc. , and the advisory board of The Good Food Institute . My life would be so much less without these organizations. They make me smarter and wiser, have brought so many friends into my life, and fill my heart with hope. Plus, they galvanize me to keep trying to make the world a better place, which we all need to do. You know that. Of course you do.

Off the soap box I go. Sorry not sorry. Bottom line: Pooh-pooh “work” all you want as a necessary evil, that’s your business. But if you can, even if it's very hard, find a way to work for free. It’s the best money you’ll never earn.?