What Are Your Beliefs About Work ? Feat. Marcus Baker

On July 13, 2011, in Beliefs About Work, Blog Series, Financial intelligence in MLM, Personal development in MLM, Video, by Oliver

What are your beliefs about work ?

I asked this question just recently on this blog and I promised to publish a digest of the most thoughtful and powerful comments to it.

Then my very good friend Marcus Baker left a comment that is definitely worth a blog post (Marcus’ recent post: How to woo Goldfish and Others | Business Social Media)

That’s why I made the decision to publish his powerful comment in this post in its entire length to show my appreciation.

“Hi Oliver,

I loved reading this post and the follow up comments. It’s a topic that has featured prominently in my thoughts for many years. In fact it’s one I could write screeds about so I’ll attempt to curb any personal rant that gets out of hand. Ha ha.

I can’t help feeling that semantics plays a role here so one has to ask what we mean by the word, “work”.

Does it mean being employed? Does it mean doing what you don’t enjoy? Both? Neither?

I’ll define it simply as “being in a state of doing”, in other words, being busy, regardless of whether as an employee or business owner and regardless of whether you love what you do or not.

I do believe however that the extent to which you love what you do will strongly influence whether you regard “work” as positive or negative. Most people who love what they do don’t even think of themselves as working.

I for one would not have enjoyed working in the Ironworks. To me that would have been far more like work than what I do now.

The question is why do we have to be continually working? I can remember at the age of 10 wondering why on earth adults worked as they did for 50 weeks a year to have 2 off for vacation. To me this seemed insane. Who agreed to this madness?

For most of us, it is because this is what we have come to accept as the way to earn a living and also as a way to define who we think we are. This is why after being introduced to someone, almost always, the next question we ask is “What do you do?” It’s what our parents did and their parents and so on.

Most of us grow up believing that we must to work to live and to give our lives some kind of context.

From that young age I was never able to accept that God or the Divine Intelligence had created so much perfection in the Universe (take the human body system for instance) and yet had not provided us with a much higher non physical intelligence to function more optimally.

Whenever I suggested this to my parents, teachers and other adults, they laughed at me saying what would I know I was just a child, that I was dreaming, unrealistic and read too much science fiction.

As I got older I learnt from these same people that my viewpoint was now equated with wanting the easy way out, of desiring to be lazy. Nothing could have been further from the truth however.

Not wanting to be tagged forever as unrealistic and lazy I relented and conformed and spent many years chained to the idea of working hard to get what I wanted in life. It never felt right to me.

As I studied Metaphysics later in life and allowed myself to ask and find the answer to “Who am I?”, I discovered that my intuition had been right all the time.

We can’t find any fulfilling meaning in identifying with an impermanent activity like a job, business or work and secondly I discovered human beings are indeed endowed with powers far beyond what most of us claim.

We don’t have to do nearly as much work as most of us do. We can eliminate a huge amount of this by simply aligning our energy and using our ability to create in thought. This does not mean that we do no work but rather that we create more and work less, to achieve the same if not better outcome.

Many people say that the laws of the universe like the law of attraction don’t work like magic but I can attest to the fact that this is exactly how it feels to use these powers.

This is not because they are supernatural in nature but because we fail to acknowledge and accept how natural a part of us they are.

Consequently my beliefs about work these days very different to my early conditioning

I loved how your story about a visit to the Voelklingen Ironworks prompted this post Oliver and I think your guiding questions are excellent thought provokers too. Well done!

~Marcus”

Wow, now that’s powerful, is it not ?

And that’s what I replied to him:

“Hi Marcus,

wow, I am blown away, thanks for your wonderful guest post

I agree that we should define what we are talking about. Work is not only being employed although it seems sometimes that it’s the only kind of work that really counts – being the breadwinner in contrast to being the housekeeper and child-raiser, even in contrast to the entrepreneur and employer. Very important is also that we are a commuter who spends countless hours in road traffic and pollutes the air

With the “state of doing” begin my problems…Is doing a state or a process ? And what are we ? Human doings or human beings ? Chances are we’re both.

However, you’ll see how much people are attached to doing instead of being if their “doing”, in most cases their job, is taken away from them, for whatever reason. It seems that their being, their life, was taken away from them.

Even some internet marketers are job-driven. I once ran into a successful internet marketer who explained to everybody that she has a real job. What ?

I don’t want a real job and I don’t care what others think about my doing so I wouldn’t waste any time to explain anything to anybody. I would rather say:”Yes you are right, I don’t have a real job and I don’t want one. In fact, who wants one ?”

The question is also: Do we really have to work continually ? We need money to put food on the table continually, but work ? The link between work, especially continual work and continual money supply is a false one, even though most people live by that pattern and die with it, having it passed on to their children and children’s children as a “legacy”.

I absolutely second you on that one: Work less and create more. I would add: Aren’t we all co-creators because even they creator of this universe can’t do it alone ?

Thanks again for your thoughtful and personal comment and adding tremendous value to the discussion.

I appreciate you.

Take care

Oliver”

By the way, these were the questions I asked:

–> What are your ideas about it in general and your work in special ?
–> What about your conditioning ? Does your labour today and the way you do it today correspond to your childhood and youth programming or not ?
–> What are your favourite myths and misconceptions about it that were drummed into you – or that you learned someplace else ? Funny ones, sad ones, teaching ones, whatever…
–> If they did, how did these beliefs hinder you from achieving success ? What did they cost you ?
–> If they did, how did they help you ?

You still have the chance to be featured in the digest, together with many other seasoned and successful network marketing bloggers.

Next post in this series: What Are My Readers’ Beliefs About Work ?

I also wrote the following posts in this series:

–> What are my beliefs about work ?
–> How I applied my beliefs about work ?

So now it’s your turn to leave us a comment.

I always love your reaction, so please leave me a comment down below with questions, thoughts, or feedback.

And (yes, here’s my call to action) please share this post with your Twitter and Facebook friends by clicking on the share buttons. I appreciate you telling others.

To a prosperous life,

Oliver Tausend
+1 201 984 5664 office North America (anytime)
+49 1512 9125216 office Germany & other countries (anytime)
Skype ID: guernsey2016 (anytime)
wordpress@olivertausend.com
Become successful in netWORK marketing

P.S.: This is the video about the Voelklingen Ironworks I shared and Marcus is talking about in his comment:

coded by nessus

15 Responses to “What Are Your Beliefs About Work ? Feat. Marcus Baker”

Elmar Sandyck says:

July 13, 2011 at 15:05

Hi Oliver!

Truly, I was blown away by Marcus’ comments! It was just like reading a post altogether! It was loaded with a lot of insightful thoughts and it was really a great thing for you to do to feature it. I, for one, missed it and highlighting it in this post was such a nice touch!

Marcus labeled it as his personal rant; you acknowledged that it added tremendous value to the discussion; i’d call it – pure magic.

Belief in one’s self and our ability to transcend more than what we think we can achieve is such an empowering testament of how powerful we really are.

Great job, guys!
Elmar Sandyck recently posted..My Own Independence Day

[Reply]
Oliver Reply:
July 14th, 2011 at 00:49
Hi Elmar,

I couldn’t have been able to say it better: It was magic and I was truly blown away too.

How you do anything is how you do everything. This comment of Marcus’ revealed that he lives exactly in his purpose and that no one can stop him.

Thanks for your thoughtful comment.

Take care

Oliver

[Reply]

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Janet
Twitter: janetcallaway
says:

July 14, 2011 at 03:30

Oliver, aloha. WOW! Now that’s a comment. Obviously your original post struck a response chord within Marcus. The clarity of his compelling communication and your response thereto makes for one of the best posts I have ever read. Oliver, thank you so much for this presentation.

Since you and I both love quotes, let me share this one from Simon Sinek that is especially appropriate to the conversation.

“Real work-life balance only happens when work and life cease to be opposing forces and become complementary ones.”

Thx again, Oliver and Marcus, for truly inspirational reading. Aloha. Janet
Janet recently posted..30 Days–What do you have to lose? By Janet Callaway | The Natural Networker

[Reply]
Oliver Reply:
July 14th, 2011 at 08:25
Hi Janet,

thanks for adding value to the discussion as well and your appreciation.

Simon Sinek’s quote is absolutely powerful. That’s exactly how I was raised: That work and life are opposing forces…I am letting go of this conditioning step by step.

Incredible how sticky it is like chewing gum…

Take care

Oliver

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Steve Nicholas says:

July 15, 2011 at 06:53

Great post, Oliver! Thanks for the wonderful information, Marcus! I couldn’t agree more about the best way to work. I think that we should reward more types of work in a better way (There are some professions that the market does not recognize as it should, especially certain public sector jobs.) but I think that the things work better when we acknowledge other people’s efforts. Using an example of a janitor, a lot of people look down on a janitor, but it’s impossible to perform surgery in an OR that isn’t sanitized.

We all have our role, so I think that the important thing is to find yours. Like Marcus, I’m not great at physical work, but I love to teach, and there are a lot of people who are the exact opposite. Thanks for reminding us of a way of looking at work.
Steve Nicholas recently posted..What Do We Reward?

[Reply]
Oliver Reply:
July 15th, 2011 at 15:19
HI Steve,

it’s a problem when one profession frowns on the other – in fact everything’s a choice and how can one be better than the other ? Every profession has its own “raison d’être”…

I wonder if the public sector would be better rewarded if people who work there didn’t accept their low pay. If nobody wanted to work in kindergarten for example, governments would have to come up with some incentives…

Thanks for your comment.

Take care

Oliver

[Reply]

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Marcus Baker
Twitter: marcus_baker
says:

July 16, 2011 at 15:20

Hi Oliver,

I was unable to read just about any posts this past week so I decided to catch up on this over the weekend.

What a surprise to find my comment made it to being a post on your blog anyway Oliver!

Thank you my friend, it was a big but very pleasant surprise and of course your follow up comment really added to my sentiments.

I especially liked your question about whether we are are not all co-creators. I totally we are. When we realize that we can create far more powerfully than we will ever be able to work then we shift our priorities and experience personal power that taps directly into the divine intelligence that is within us all.

Thank you again Oliver for writing the original post which inspired me to write the comment in the first place. I am honored to have been featured here on your blog in this way.

Take care,

Marcus

[Reply]
Oliver Reply:
July 17th, 2011 at 14:23
Hi Marcus,

thanks for your comment. Glad you not only like the original post, but also my answer to your comment.

It’s an absolute pleasure to feature you here – in fact, didn’t you feature yourself ?

I appreciate you.

Take care

Oliver

[Reply]

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Ilka Flood
Twitter: ilkaflood
says:

July 18, 2011 at 18:45

Hi Oliver,

What a great idea to feature Marcus’ insightful comment and make it a follow up blog post of your own. To read both of your thoughts about your previous topic was very thought-provoking to say the least.

There are a lot of thoughts running through my head right now and echoes of what you both mentioned above.

Just one…“We need money to put food on the table continuously, but work?

I think it has gone way beyond just putting food on the table over the past decades. It seems we always need/want more, the latest and the greatest. Half of the things we have we don’t even need. I think we need to start simplifying our lives again. Work less, live more. Enjoy life as it was meant to be and not how we made it to be.

I could add more but will leave it at that.

Thanks for an awesome, awesome post, both of you!

Ilka
Ilka Flood recently posted..Social Media: Why You Need to Include it in Your Business Strategies

[Reply]
Oliver Reply:
July 18th, 2011 at 22:34
Hi Ilka,

thanks for your comment and seconding me on my decision to feature Marcus’ awesome comment in a post of its own…

Well, living our lives based on what we really need can become unfun pretty fast – at least in my view. What we desire and what we actually can afford is not necessarily related to the amount of work we put into it – unless we work in a job that pays us by the hour, then it’s definitely limited.

Take care

Oliver

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Donna says:

July 20, 2011 at 06:24

Just like the law of Attraction we can call out to the universe so that we can produce greater out put with minimum work. I am also used to the idea that we need to work hard to succeed. You have some interesting thoughts here Marcus, it would be great if we have more time for our selves and produce excellent work at the same time.

[Reply]
Oliver Reply:
July 20th, 2011 at 08:32
Hi Donna,

thanks for your initial comment on my blog. To achieve more with less, it’s called leverage. It boils down to the question: Do you live to work or do you work to live ?

Take care

Oliver

[Reply]

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Oliver says:

July 20, 2011 at 08:33

Hi Darla,

thanks for your initial comment on my blog. Well, work when donw right is enjoyable. Why would I do anything I don’t enjoy ? Life’s too short for that.

Take care

Oliver

[Reply]

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Mavis Nong | Underground Blogging Secrets
Twitter: MavisNong
says:

July 20, 2011 at 13:49

Hey Oliver,

Wow, wow, wow! I am truly blown away by Marcus’ powerful and insightful comment!

Your response makes this a very interesting and inspiring read.

Thanks for this powerful post, Oliver and Marcus.

All the best,
Mavis
Mavis Nong | Underground Blogging Secrets recently posted..What Does Your Online Business Tools Page Say About You?

[Reply]
Oliver Reply:
July 20th, 2011 at 20:45
Hi Mavis,

thanks for your comment.

Glad you found our little chat inspiring

Take care

Oliver

[Reply]

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