Dire Straits

Dear Reader,

As promised, I would like to begin to articulate some of the values upon which I have settled in my young adulthood. In the last week or so, I realized just how crucial this documentation is because there might come a day when my vision of these values blurs and I begin to adopt bits of the garbage philosophy prevalent in the many, many people that have given up their right to think as individuals. As such, dear Reader, allow me to communicate some of my values regarding work.

My personal expectations for my current job are as follows: a) to develop skills that will make me useful to future employers and equip me to accomplish future career goals, b) to benefit and promote IIT and the Velocity Initiative, c) to positively impact the people I interview, and d) to learn, learn, learn – and continue to grow into the man I want to be.

My priority will not always be my own comfort, nor will it never be. I will work hard to perform highly, but I will not bleed for a cause that is not my own.

I am not worried about being pampered or squeezing as many pennies as possible out of my employer. I do not want to be lazy, I do not want to feel entitled, and I do not want to take my opportunity to work for granted. If I expect to be treated as a professional, I must consistently act like one. If I expect to be treated with luxury, then I am to have earned it through my sweat and my ability. I do not expect rewards to come quickly or easily, nor do I want them to! Let me get my hands dirty. Let me learn how to really work. I do not assume that I am an expert now – in fact, I am still just a beginner!

In short, I don’t want money for nothin’ or chicks for free. I don’t want my MTV.

If it is necessary to keep reminding myself of this, then so be it. These are my values, and they will guide and reward me, should I stay faithful to them. It will be a struggle to do so in the modern work environment. But it is the absence of these values in great big groups of people that harms the good, honest, and hard-working humans out there, to whom the world itself rightfully belongs!

If – and it often does – excellent work goes unnoticed, it is never wasted work. That is, as long as it was applied intelligently. Hard, intelligent work at any endeavor will shape me into a hard-working, intelligent man. If I can be just that at whatever I do, then I will earn all that I deserve in life, regardless of the immediate rewards.

Until later,

Howard, Your Working Boy

This is a book

Dear Readers,

Lately I have felt stirrings of confidence and passion within me once again. With excitement, I welcome back the familiar feeling of purpose and of hunger for life. Each new day, I feel as if I am emerging a little more from the hazy confusion of youth and inexperience. I am ready to commit to a craft, no longer fearful of abandoning many potential paths for a single one. After all, it is much easier to repel distractions when your energy is focused, and not thinly spread over too many efforts. No longer am I sampling freely from the all-you-can-eat buffet of life. I am digesting now - absorbing the lessons and wisdom like nutrients, expelling the frivolous and foolish like shit.

I see myself now with a marvelous clarity that I did not have several months ago. I can state with confidence my core values and where I learned them. One must never underestimate the importance of this recognition. I still remember the confusion of having an undeveloped set of values, like an adolescent attempting to maintain physical coordination throughout a growth spurt. Thankfully, as I am entering a phase where I will be making very big decisions about my education, career, and home, I know very well who I am as a man.

Furthermore, I feel greatly aware of the length of a human life and how my actions now fit into the big picture. With my job, I am fortunate to gain a much larger perspective on life. Life is long, but the world is full of others who have lived through theirs and from whom I may learn. The future is a mystery, but it is *probably* coming, so we had better be prepared anyway. We will never know what the world is going to do to us, but if we know who we are, then we will always know how we wish to act within the world.

I should like to write more on the actual values and lessons at a later date.

Until then,

Your Working Boy, Arnold