“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” ~ Confucius
On Christmas Eve, and probably on New Year's Eve, while everyone is counting down the hours 'til the next midnight, as the sounds of merry-making fill the neighborhood, and the sweet chill of the season fills people's lungs, there are those who choose to work - seemingly nonchalant in their offices, typing and accomplishing what needs to be done. It's an uncommon group of people, people with something very few others have. Amid the photos with all the smiles, amid the posts of parties and Christmas and New Year greetings, they choose to work - without hesitation, nor a tinge of sadness. It's when you're madly in love, that that sweet giddy feeling seems to override your desire to do what the rest of the people are doing, having all sorts of fun. It's sacrificing for things you love. And yet, could you call it sacrifice at all? I'm talking about people who do work they love. Working on Christmas and New Year's Eve, and loving it.
It's when you don't mind everyone else, playing, and you're in your office, working. It's when you see people doing what they actually like doing if they didn't have to work for money, and you feel so happy for them for having fun, but at the same time for you too.
Because a smile, a snigger, a deep joy grows and bursts inside of you. Because the truth is, to be able to do this even on Christmas Eve, even on New Year's Eve, is a privilege. It's when you're no different from the people having the time of their lives outside your office, because you're having the time of yours right there. It's when you love your job, and when you feel that you wouldn't want to do anything else, that you know, you probably are among the luckiest people in the world. Because you experience every day the kind of joy others experience only during Christmas and New Year's Eve.
I'm tremendously lucky to be one of those people (http://www.facebook.com/josecarlosoriano/posts/242001375930763). They say this is only possible when you love. Where else can you find this sort of happiness in difficulty, of wanting to work even on Christmas eve, than in parents, waking up at 3 in the morning to attend to their little baby, working day in day out just to look at their children's smile when they get home, and make sure their smile doesn't fade when they're all grown up. It's loving the reason for your work. I and my friends love our work, because we love the people that our work serves. We're social entrepreneurs. Through each other's help, we've started three social enterprises: one gives livelihood to the poor, the other increases the organizational effectiveness of the people or organizations who serve the poor, and the last increases the advocacy visibility of those people or organizations. And ever since I and my friends have made that risky decision to do what we love, to become social entrepreneurs, our days have always been Christmas and New Year's Eve. Every day became days of joyful anticipation. What could come next? What will we do next? Being a social entrepreneur is not really a sacrifice. The story is often told of valiant people sacrificing their high-paying corporate jobs to serve the less fortunate. Those are great sacrifices, yes. But to me the story can be told a little differently - with more gratitude. Social entrepreneurs are people who've sacrificed for riskier life paths, true, but it's a choice, a privilege given to few. Much fewer than the people they work to serve. And if they are really sincere, and if they really do love the people they serve, in exchange they've gained a life wherein they never have to work again.