Attitudes
A person talks to some men working in a quarry. One of them is moving slowly, apparently very exhausted and angry. “Cutting stones from this mountain,” he complains, “is a terrible job. It’s monotonous, extremely tiresome and pays very badly.”
The man goes to a different worker doing the same job, but with a smile on his lips, working with energy and enthusiasm. “The stones I cut will be used to build a great cathedral,” he says excitedly. “I feel honored to participate in its construction! It will be a beautiful building and will stand for thousands of years!”
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Lovely story that introduced us to a great man and inspired a great deal of deep and thoughtful discussion. May we all build cathedrals with our words.
This short piece makes me think of that picture on a bus with a person sitting on the sunny side and the other one on the rocky side. We are the source of our own happiness.
I heard this story right when I started to look for something to write with the theme “Different.” I loved the story and thought it would fit in here.
The Swedish former businessman Jan Carlzon was interviewed and talked about his philosophy as a business leader. As a young man, he took over SAS, Scandinavian Airlines System, which had a big deficit at the time. Very soon, he turned it around and the company made a lot of money. The explanation, he said, was that he made all of the employees feel included and important for the product they were selling. He informed the executives and bosses to address other employees in a different way than before and illustrated his philosophy with this story.
He later became a very attractive speaker, also for business students at universities, and wrote a bestselling book (where I think, this story is included) which in its English translation was called Moments of Truth. The original title in Swedish was Tear Down the Pyramids, which more explicitly shows how he was thinking.
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Thanks for sharing the video with us, he must be a great man, I really like his mentality!
PS Thanks for your nice comment, Brigitta!
A glass half full, half empty story Christer. I loved reading what you had to say about Jan Carlzon. If only other managers had his mentality. I’ve worked for many but only one inspired me and helped me achieve my potential. Those two men in your story were different indeed, I really enjoyed reading it.
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Thank you, Linda. I was impressed by Jan C. Although he has had a lot of success in his life and is now approaching 80, he was very humble, speaking warmly about love and respect. Maybe the manager who inspired you was influenced by him?
Thanks for your generous comment.
PS Linda, if you are interested in listening to Jan Carlzon, the interview that I heard can be seen on Youtube. The title is: Rick Coles interviews Jan Carlzon. He starts out by telling the story I used and proceeds to talk about management styles and his opinions about it (with a pretty heavy Swedish accent).
That sounds right up my street Christer. I’ll definitely give it a listen. Thanks.
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I’ve just listened to the interview Christer and it’s amazing how, in such simple terms, this man makes so much sense. I love the story of the 100 note, how turning something complicated into something so simple made such a difference. Thank you so much for sharing it.
Hello Christer – I also enjoyed your story and appreciated you telling us about the YouTube interview. I watched it and loved it. I especially liked the part where Carlzon said that if something cannot be communicated it does not exist. Since we are all aspiring to communicate well, his words are particularly inspiring.
Thank you, Christer, for your wisdom and for introducing us to another man of wisdom.
Hi Fuji! It makes me happy to see that you enjoyed the story and even listened to the interview with Jan C. The words from him that you are quoting are indeed food for thought.
As for us, who enjoy writing stories, we put in a lot of time and hard work feeling happy about it, because we love it. Somebody else might have said that to them, it would be a boring and burdensome activity. My own “attitude of gratitude” goes to the Voice.club team and all of you who share this activity with me, writing, reading and commenting. Even if we are not building a cathedral, we might entertain, spread joy and maybe even start thought processes and communications.
And one more thing, Fuji: the communications with your mind are always a delight. It’s an important part of this whole activity.
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What a beautiful response, Christer. We may actually be building cathedrals, or perhaps as e. e. cummings, said “little churches”. The sum total of all our stories, pictures, comments and sharing is creating something of great value. I also enjoy communicating with your mind!!
This story makes me realize how people see each situation differently. It is on the people how they turn or make a very difficult and bad situation into a good and productive one. The attitude makes the difference.
You are so right, Lotchie! We never know what can come out of a situation. Sometimes there are surprises. The attitude is crucial and to have “an attitude of gratitude” can turn the whole picture around. Thanks for your comment!
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You’re welcome, Christer.
Hello Christer, it does us good to be reminded in your story, that it is not so much what we do, but the reason why we do it! I can look back and remember how hard my father worked knowing he managed to do what he did, because he loved my mother and us, his children.
You were lucky, Eric, to have a father with that attitude. He would be very happy to know that you remember and appreciate his good work. To have children gives us a good opportunity to practice the sacred activity of selflessness!
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Great story Christer, it’s always easier to do difficult or mundane tasks when you know you are creating something beautiful. Hopefully it’ll give the first man a little bit of motivation and help him enjoy his work, just a little bit more.
Thanks for your comment, Carrie. I wonder if the first man would be interested in listening to the second man and open to a change of attitude. It’s possible, but it’s also possible that he already has cemented his opinion. I think that Jan C. would say that it all depends on how they were introduced to their work by their boss.
There’s so much wisdom in this piece. It indeed buttresses its title. We”re indeed the architect of our happiness. A nice one.
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A young person who recently read my little story, reacted in a negative way, “This kind of attitude can be exploited by the employer, letting his workers toil for next to nothing while he is making great gains.”
I think her reaction is reasonable for a person in South America, where there is a lot of inequality and exploitation. I tried to explain to her that the point is that everybody can profit if we love to do the work we do, just as you are saying. And to do this, we need to broaden our view of the activity.
Christer, than you for sharing the story about Jan Carlzon. With the right reason for doing things, we certainly can go a long way. It is quite easy to feel like the first man in your story, if you feel that it is laborious and pointless if you do not have the motivation the second man had. Maybe it is also a case of just changing your perspective. The first man maybe never gave any consideration to the fact that he is part of something great, never realising his worth in this project.
Thanks for your comment, Marianna. I’m glad you can look at the story from both perspectives. I think we all have experiences from both feeling annoyed with a specific job, believing that it doesn’t matter how or if you do it, and having the feeling of being included in something that matters within a bigger perspective.
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Christer, I was just looking at your story again and was thinking that maybe if the first person was ‘included’ in the discussions and arrangements to get the job done, it might have been different.
Of course, Marianna, you are right. It’s up to the boss, employer, parent, teacher etc. to try to include the other person so that he can look at the job from a bigger perspective, feel responsible and motivated.
This is a great story with a great message. We can choose to be happy or we can choose to dwell in our anger and sadness. Well done Christer!
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Thank you very much, Daisy. I really appreciate your comment.
No problem Christer. You deserve all the positive comments.
Oh man. Pure wisdom. Your brief text reads as a written soul gem as well as a voyage into the core of passion. All lessons intended apart, you write smoothly and straight to the point. Keep it going Chris !
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Wow, Eduardo! That’s the best praise anybody could ask for. Muchas gracias, amigo.
Spanish for the good at heart. Lucky me !!! – Cervantes dances right now out of pure joy !
Congratulations, Christer. This was a very inspiring story and a well-deserved win! Thanks for sharing such meaningful ideas with all of us.
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Thank you, Julie. There is a special enjoyment in writing, a different pleasure in being read and a wonderful delight in receiving critical acclaim.
Congratulations, Christer, on your win.
Thank you very much, Lotchie.
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Congratulations Christer, a well deserved win and thank you for introducing us to Jan Carlzon. I love how we get to meet such interesting people through our stories.
Oh my, I love coincidences too and his answer to the question. What a lovely man.
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I am amazed at the coincidence, and yet not surprised. Serendipity often means being in the right place at the right time, and your story is the perfect example! Congratulations, Christer.
It might interest you to know, Linda and Fuji, that just a week ago, I started to transfer “coincidental stories” from a pile of old notebooks to my computer.
About 20 years ago, when I took a leap of faith which was very, very scary (I left Sweden, my family, my job, house, friends, possessions etc) to join a spiritual association in Wisconsin and remarry. At that time, while still in Sweden, strange coincidences started to happen to me. I saw them as an encouragement to go ahead with my plans, against everybody’s advice not to do it and in spite of the terror I felt.
Coincidences still happen to me once in a while and I now have a good collection of about 350 stories to transfer and edit. (By the way, 350 is a number which sounds familiar, haha!)
A book of coincidences, now that sounds irresistible. Something I would really enjoy reading. Good luck Christer!
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Congratulations Christer. Great story ?
Thank you very much, Carrie!
This is a great story, Christer. Congratulations on your well-deserved win!
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Very kind of you, Marianna. Thank you so much.
A great story and a gentle message to us all! Congratulations, Christer!
Thank you very much, Sandra!
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