The Other Way

Throughout my career at the helm of Warburg Realty, I have poured my heart into creating a company which adheres to high ideals. Of course we are all in business to make money. But life in the workplace also consumes the majority of our waking hours, and ours is a stressful calling. We are frequently at the mercy of the anxieties of our customers and clients, and absent their satisfaction the likelihood that we will be compensated for our efforts diminishes. Real estate agents spend their lives under the gun, and this adrenalized experience can threaten to make us hamsters on a financial wheel. But there is so much more to life at work than that.

In his brilliant and soul-stirring op-ed piece, “The New Romantics in the Computer Age,” David Brooks, the New York Times’s resident humanist philosopher, writes “The new romanticism…will be driven…by the human craving for the transcendent. Through history there have always been moments when eras of pragmatism give way to eras of high idealism.” Brooks opines that there is an increasing hunger in our materially driven society for experiences, and a way of life, which hew more closely to our best selves, the selves which care more for relationships and service than they do for money and prestige.

At work, as in every aspect of our lives, we have the opportunity to shine the light of generosity and kindness on those around us. Every day, in our interactions with colleagues, our staff, our clients and customers, we can make THEIR stresses easier to bear. The deployment of humor, of appreciation for the efforts of others, responsiveness to inquiries, politeness, a modicum of concern – these qualities, easy to remember and free of charge, brighten the lives of everyone with whom we come into contact and thus our own. The “high idealism” of which Brooks speaks requires us to invest human capital in our communities, not just ourselves.

What do we want our lives to look like? Is he who has accumulated the most toys at the end of his life really the winner? Or would we rather be the people who are remembered for the positive impact we have had on others in our world. Are we thoughtful to those less powerful than we, or do we take advantage of our position to speak to them as we would never want to be spoken to ourselves? Are we blamers or collaborators who assume our own fair share of responsibility? Do we strive in our daily interactions not to judge, or are we chronically and harshly denigrating those around us? Whenever someone says to you, “It’s just business,” be suspicious! You are who you are in every aspect of your life.

Speaking for myself, I don’t want to be remembered as the guy who just chased the money. I want to be the guy who succeeded BECAUSE I value relationships over financial gain, BECAUSE I try every day to make the lives of my constituents and my community more fulfilling and successful. THOSE satisfactions are beyond price.