Work for success and work for satisfaction

Prof. A.N. Sadhu
Human life is a long journey. It involves a bodily effort to sustain oneself along the time path from birth to death. The evolution of human society necessitates an organized form of physical and mental activity to bring about sustainability and scientific advance for exploration and enhancement of quality of life that humans need to work, both, on mental and physical front is a natural requirement. The human activity may be categorized as work for success and work for satisfaction. People do work out of necessity. They also work for status progression as also for economic progression. Obviously, their focus is on work for success. Human nature and necessities of life demand that people should work to fit in the social system evolved over time. Normal human behavior would warrant that people work for success. This is necessitated by the requirement of sustaining self and family besides meeting other desirable and unavoidable expenditures in everyday life. The distinction between work for success and work for satisfaction may look philosophical and spiritual but, in real life, it is distinct on humanitarian principles. However, people born with silver spoon, do also work for physical fitness and robust health. They hardly realize either the necessity or the desirability of distinguishing between work for success and work for satisfaction. Their lack of this understanding on the one hand and the clout of a rich legacy on the other, makes them a social liability. They consume their capital at the cost of their future.
The work for success is a normal human behavior. Career advancement and urge for recognition is a natural instinct. What is important is the means adopted for success. It is observed that if success alone is set as a goal for work people may adopt dubious ways to scale up the ladder of success and their work may be more pretentious than substantial. The poor content of their work is often camouflaged by sycophancy and it sells well in the mediocre officialdom. Substance takes the backseat against the salesmanship and showoff resulting into, many a times, people succeeding in selling barley for wheat. Unfortunately, the developing countries that emerged after the World War II have fallen in this trap. Success as a goal is a natural instinct but it should be pursued legitimately. The goal should be achievable within the means of hard and sincere work, honest handling of the assigned roles and skillful management for public good. Frequent scandals, that surfaced in the developing countries in the recent past have betrayed the public faith in the systems that have been evolved overtime. These tendencies could perhaps have been minimized if not eliminated had people set their goals not only for success but for satisfaction as well. Work for success is exclusive while as work for satisfaction is inclusive in character.
The work ethos demands that one should work for satisfaction which automatically includes work for success as well. The exclusivity of work for success may tend to be devoid of ethics and result into corruption- both mental and material. Such a work is carried out in violation of basic principles of humanity; truth, honesty, commitment and sincerity in work. This restricts the evolution of healthy practices in the individual organizations as also in the overall systems of a nation. Success should be an honest pursuit which will lead a person highly satisfied at the end of the day. This success should not be stolen by cheating, it should come of its own as a reward for honest work. Work and morality should go together; that culminates in the work for satisfaction. Success through dubious means may be devoid of satisfaction and cause lot of regret in the long run.
Work for satisfaction demands missionary zeal, sublime temperament and commitment to serve the society with higher ideals. Vivekananda has said that life is to be helpful to others and it is death not to be helpful to others. Work for satisfaction implies that it should not be only self-serving it should be serving the society as well. The work for satisfaction is self-realization at a higher pedestal. Attachment to cause and detachment from worldly temptations is a prerequisite of work for satisfaction. Look within to realize the essence of life. Don’t assess yourself; let others do it. The work for satisfaction emanates from the environment one creates for oneself which in turn requires that people around you are happy because of your work and not that you alone are happy because of the work that you do. Work for satisfaction would also require that besides enhancing your competence, you also promote your social quality. Speak to enlighten, work to help and think to elevate yourself in comprehending the subtilities of social domain. One should not belong to the sole but to the whole. The work leading to one’s success brings a smile on his face but the work leading to satisfaction brings a smile to the society. Men should remember; they belong to the society and do not live in isolation.
If in an organization you are given a responsible position, the rest will look at you as a leader and leader is one who supervises, guides and transforms his team of workers into an asset. The leader does not command he only inspires. The motivation is a strong force to cultivate the spirit of teamwork. The satisfaction of work lives with the performer on everlasting basis when the success does not live beyond a point of time. Men in the lasting memory of the world have all worked for satisfaction and not for success alone. History is replete with stories of outstanding persons who worked throughout their life for satisfaction and success followed them and made them the men of all times such as Vivekananda and others.
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