I saw a cartoon on Facebook where Big Panda asked Tiny Dragon, “Which is more important, the journey or the destination?” Tiny Dragon’s answer was, “The company.” Tiny Dragon’s answer is simple, profound, and true because good friends are what make our journey through life enjoyable. An article by Peggy Drexler, which appeared in The Wall Street Journal, cited the 80-year-long Harvard Study of Adult Development which confirms this point. The study found that, “…it’s not money or fame, nor possessions or looks, that lead to happiness but, rather, strong relationships.” Strong personal friendships with people we love and care about who are honest, transparent, and comfortable in their own skin. The lesson here is that if we want to enjoy the journey, we need to keep making friends.
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Recommended Reading
Instant Turnaround!: Getting People Excited About Coming to Work and Working Hard
Transform Your Workplace!
Imagine a company where people are excited about coming to work and giving their best efforts every day. In this innovative and engrossing business parable, Harry Paul and Ross Reck show managers at all levels how they can immediately and easily increase productivity by tapping into the discretionary effort of the people who work for them. Starting from the most basic aspect of business reality—that people intentionally regulate the amount of effort they put into their jobs based upon how they feel they’re being treated—the authors point out that the most important part of the job of every manager, team leader, supervisor, and executive is to treat people in such a way that they become excited about applying all their discretionary effort toward performing their jobs.
At the book’s center is the story of Nancy Kim, a human resources director at a magazine that is struggling with all the problems associated with unhappy employees—low productivity and morale along with high absenteeism and turnover. After she openly challenges the CEO’s new management-by-the-numbers system, she’s charged with turning the situation around immediately. Filled with real-world studies, Instant Turnaround! shows anyone how to turn the workplace into a destination—a place where working hard feels like hardly working because it’s engaging, enjoyable, and fulfilling.
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