Leading with Noble Purpose

Introduction: Why Work Matters

What if your work mattered so much to you that—on your deathbed—you found yourself wishing for one more day at the office?

While I was writing this book, my father died. In the months before his death, I had time to reminisce with him about his life's high points, among them, his job.

My father worked in banking. At the height of his career he was Director of Mergers and Acquisitions for the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation, the FSLIC, which later merged into the FDIC. During the S&L crisis of the 1980s he ran a team whose purpose was to merge failing banks with solvent banks, so taxpayers wouldn't have to foot the bill if an S&L went under.

In his office, my father kept a flipchart tracking how much money his department saved the U.S. taxpayers. He updated that chart weekly and shared it with anyone who walked into his office. Financial experts estimated that my father and his team saved the taxpayers billions of dollars. The stakes were high. The work was difficult, but his team was passionate about it because they knew it mattered.

We've all heard the adage: No one on their deathbed wishes they'd spent more time at the office. I think that adage is misunderstood. It belittles the role that meaningful work plays in our lives. A 2005 study of terminal cancer patients found that, once the patients finished talking about their families, some of their most meaningful experiences involved doing work that mattered with people they cared ...