Lean Quote: Love What You Do

On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on this journey because without learning we can not improve.

"Do what you love, love what you do, and with all your heart give yourself to it."   —  Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart

We often hear the phrase “you’ve got to love what you do” and it is advice given by many self-help gurus and books. But what exactly does it mean?

These days it appears to be fashionable for young kids to call themselves entrepreneurs or founders. They have fallen in love with the idea of starting and running their own businesses. Yet unless you are making money, instead of raising money, you are not being very entrepreneurial. What these people are in love with is the title of ‘entrepreneur’. But to be a true entrepreneur involves hours and hours developing a product or service. It means spending days and weeks sitting in front of a computer writing boring lines of code or prototyping package designs and UI experiences. If you are not in love with that part of the work, you are not in love with what you do.

And that is what “love what you do” really means. It means you love the work of doing what you do every day. It means you love waking up at 6 am every morning and writing your book. It means you love pushing through the pain barrier every day in the gym to achieve the body you want. What it really means is you love the process of doing what you do.

If your love is the title, or the money or the position, you will never find happiness or fulfilment in your work. That only comes from the process. It is the love you have for doing that ultimately leads to happiness and fulfilment. That’s where the long-term wins are. There is no winning strategy in handing out small pieces of card with the title “founder” on it only for you to spend your days running around seeking money for a, as yet untested idea. That’s being in love with the name and not the process.