Jul 272006
Your Goal: Professional Nirvana
Your Goal: Professional Nirvana
Brad wrote a delightful post the other day entitled "My Work is Play to Me." His theory about how to achieve it is worth reading. I, too believe that my work is play (under this definition), and that has been one of the things that’s kept me going as an entrepreneur for nearly seven years now. And you don’t have to be a VC, or a CEO, or be working remotely to achieve the state.
This is reminiscent of the Fish books (here, here, and here), although in a more fundamental, philosophical, internally-generated way. Those are good, quick "airport" reads — at least get the first one, which is the story about the famous Pike Place fish market in Seattle, which is a great place and experience.
This is easy. Repeat after me:
If you have a job, your goal should be to make your work play.
If you manage other people, your goal should be to make work play for anyone on your team.
The Buddha explains Nirvāṇa as “the unconditioned”(asankhata) mind, a mind that has come to a point of perfect lucidity and clarity due to the cessation of the production of volitional formations. This is described by the Buddha as “deathlessness”(Pali: amata or amaravati) and as the highest spiritual attainment, the natural result that accrues to one who lives a life of virtuous conduct and practice in accordance with the Noble Eightfold Path.