Finding worth in your work

I believe in working to create a rich life. If it happens to be a wealthy life, all the better.
Recently, in one of my training groups of university age Georgians, I was asked, “what is the key to my success?” This came up after I introduced myself to my group with some personal background information. I am 3 times their age and spent the past 50 years living in America. They are curious why I have chosen to have spent the past 10 years living in Georgia. I still have an intermittent career in the airlines involving flight training, and development and have multiple ongoing international business ventures. So, why here now? How can they have success? How exactly have I achieved success?

Let’s start with how I earned the title of International business expert. Well, I dragged my bag full of successes and failures from the USA across the the Atlantic Ocean to Europe and beyond to create better successes and failures. I stand before you not ruined, but enriched by my experiences. That’s my definition of International business expert! Win more than you lose by managing your risks, adjusting your expectations, and evaluating your outcomes. With each trial you will gain new wisdom.

My young students are now working towards a university degree at the National Defense Academy of Georgia. They are formulating how they are going to create a financial future for themselves, if not by surviving on Army pay alone now, or perhaps after serving their country in civilian life. Having money, free time, and nice things is a universal goal. However, note this key point, please; Some people know the price of everything and the value of nothing. Instead of being one of them, seek worth in your work above wealth.

The secret to success in life

I believe that the formula for success is in serving others. The young people that I share the classroom with at the universities, academies, and cockpits where I have taught, know why they are there. They know the curriculum that must be mastered to pass exams. They believe that by graduating the program they will achieve success. I serve them!

So, now I ask them;
What does success look like to you? Immediately, it is the certificate and title of graduate. Now what? They believe that they are now qualified to do something, but will they be successful? What does the next new idea of success look like? Making money at a job that you are now qualified to do? If you get the job, are happy making the amount of money you earn there? If yes, then the success is measured in all the sacrifices of effort and tuition payments that got you here. But what if you are unsatisfied with the pay, and maybe the job itself? Maybe you wish that you could be doing something else. Are you still successful?

Perhaps you have a new idea to do something else for money. However, you will have to sacrifice the security in what you now have to possibly gain a job that you enjoy more and hopefully, are paid more. Its a gamble. If you achieve your goal, you are successful. If you are unhappy, your definition of success might have to be reconsidered. While we are giving it our best to make a living, we need to hold onto hope for what might be in our future.

Work within your values

I’ve got only about 10 minutes in this TED talk to see if I will be successful in entertaining and enlightening you on the subject of making a life while making money. If I have imparted inspiration on you to have hope and work within your values to be successful, I will be rewarded immediately with genuine smiles, applause, congratulations, and perhaps many Likes on YouTube later. That’s the feedback that I will use to find the worth in taking the risk today to my ego. Hopefully, I will inspire you. Maybe I will simply bore you. However, it will remain within my power to manage my expectations and outcomes from my audience. I will either build on this success or perhaps reconsider my approach to my work for the next occasion.

I sometimes discuss values and goals with my students. What makes you happy? What is the meaning of a life well spent? What defines you? What is your motivation and whom does it serve? A key ethics question for me is; Does my gain cause someone else pain? I prefer to cooperate rather than conquer. Follow the golden rule; Treat others as you would like to be treated.

I believe in having a certain quality of life, rather than quantity of things. But since many of you want to know my suggestion for earning money, it goes like this:
Love what you do, care about who you serve and those you serve with. To maximize your time and income, you either have to be able to charge a lot of money for your time or figure out how to avoid that model of income generation, i.e. Selling your time by the hour for a fixed price. I prefer to invest in companies and properties that generate a passive income. Another great method to invest money instead of time is to create a proprietary product that can be licensed for reproduction. It can earn fees and royalties exponentially more than is possible when we are being paid for the finite time in which we have to labor. The money will come to you while you sleep, dream, and play.

Another expat story

Now to what I really came here to say – My Italian grandparents immigrated to America more than 120 years ago. My parents were born in New York City, as was I. We lived in a multicultural household in a multistory building my grandparents owned after many years of hard work. They lived in one of the apartments and I lived in another with my parents and sister. The remaining two apartments were occupied by uncles and aunts and my cousins. Every weekend, we would all gather in grandparents apartment for the traditional Sunday dinner. I have early memories of making wine in the cellar with my grandfather and father. So, you have an idea of our family values: the 4Fs, family, food, friends, food.
One of the reasons that I can say that my grandparents were rich is not so much that they came to America from rural Italy and profited from their labors. They knew that true value was found in family ties and culture. They arranged the situations to keep themselves surrounded by friends and family by providing food and fun. They also had a summer house on the New Jersey Shore, just an hour outside of our permanent residence in NYC. There they would spend the warm months working in the garden and enjoying fresh air and the beaches nearby. Many of my aunts, uncles, cousins, and my immediate family would join them on weekends for Sunday dinner and often for short summer vacations, bunking in the attic bedrooms.

In my teenage years, my grandparents grew old and naturally passed away. They were the center of my extended family. With them died those days of genuine Italian-American culture for me. My remaining family drifted away from each other, with no one else to act as the glue to hold us all to the old world ways and gatherings.

By chance and good fortune, as a young pilot and flight dispatcher, I was hired by Alitalia Airlines, the airline of Italy. All of my colleagues were native Italians and I was required to learn to speak Italian on the job. I was enjoying the rich culture of Italy, once again, while being based at New York’s JFK airport. Because airline life requires long shifts and 24/7 scheduling, after many years passed, I felt burned out. My values had changed with age and the worth of feeling rested felt more valuable to me than free world travel benefits while feeding my passion for being around big jets on global adventures.

Food, family, friends, food

I got married, moved to Baltimore, near Washington, DC, and stayed connected to aviation through providing flight training at the local airport with some airline work. I discovered a Little Italy in Baltimore and enjoyed visiting on occasions just for a cultural treat. I even volunteered for a year to be a co-host on a live weekly AM talk-radio show that focuses on Italian-American culture. We talked about such things as food, family, and fun we all enjoyed in our cultural traditions.

After my divorce from my wife in Baltimore, I had no desire to remain in that town. I had already made a few expeditions to the country of Georgia to assist my diplomatic ties in Washington to develop foreign relations in that country with American backings. What I particularly love about Georgian people is that their culture also centers around the 4Fs, food, family, friends, food. Unlike Americans that live to work, the Italians and Georgians work to live. My visits to Georgia grew more frequent and longer. I eventually found a Georgian wife, and now call Georgia my permanent home.

Moral of the story – It’s never too late to make a new beginning. Better to pursue the worth in your work than to be demoralized by outcomes that no longer align with your current values. I even managed to have a new baby girl in my new marriage in my relatively old age. To become a parent in my golden years brings much joy to me and our new family. That’s my definition of success!

Life goes on & changes are called!

Food, family, friends, food! And that’s how you put more worth in your work and have a rich life. It can be a wealthy one, too. Just remember to put people above profits to make a life worth living.

Wishing you all health, hope, happiness, peace, and prosperity.

I hope my presentation resonated with you. I’d love to hear your thoughts.