Many of us have lived with that gnawing feeling that our work must have a purpose beyond our current employer and project. We hope to find a wellspring of motivation from connecting with that purpose. Many search for years, then eventually give up and settle into enduring work with dogged determination while keeping one eye on retirement. However, a few are lucky enough to discover their unique purpose for work — a purpose that uniquely matches their interests and personalities.

That raises the question: Why do some people never find their work purpose while others end up with a great sense of destiny for why they do what they do?

Wage Slave or Working for Yourself?

One secret seems to be the vantage point or context for viewing our careers. Some vantage points obviously bring better results. For example, the difference between viewing our work as an employee of a company (wage slave) versus being an employed computer science professional (in business for ourselves with present employer as our current client) leads to a very different work experience. The former is having a job while the latter focuses on a career and our expertise. In the former case, we describe who we work for, while in the latter case we describe our expertise and the impact we make.

Clearly, being a computer scientist developing system internals gets a very different response from professional colleagues than saying "I work for Microsoft." Our life will be very different depending on which context or perspective we take — "wage slave" or "in business for our self."

Although escaping from the "wage slave" trap helps enormously, such a framework is neither encompassing enough nor rich enough to provide real help in discovering our unique purpose for why we do the work we do. We need a comprehensive framework to help us find the purpose for our careers. How can we view mundane work as critically important instead of just drudgery? How can we bring meaning to work rather than trying to get meaning from work? How can we find the motivating purpose that invigorates our work?

Developing a Framework

Such a framework or vantage point must span an entire career where we work for several organizations, take on a wide range of responsibilities, and do very different projects. How can this framework be specific enough to be useful but flexible enough to include what the future brings? As ordinary and trite as it sounds, I would recommend that we look at our work from the framework of people. Everything we do impacts and benefits people—customers, fellow employees, suppliers, and investors.

Even with such a perspective it takes serious thought to discover how that gets personalized for each individual. The firsthand accounts of several people show how such a framework eventually results in a uniquely personal purpose for the work each person does. One attorney discovers after many years that he "brings structure to people's dreams." A licensed steam fitter and electrician eventually realizes that he would rather be a "hero than a zero" as he rapidly diagnoses and repairs industrial equipment to get a factory back on line. A homemaker sees that creating a marriage and a family environment that propels children straight into society with a sense of destiny brings great meaning to everyday and very ordinary activities. An IRS agent discovers that he is all about assisting people getting their business financial house in order not just collecting back taxes.

Looking at Your People Picture

How is it that a framework that focuses on people gives us a better chance at finding the purpose of our work? First, the vast majority of organizations provide some service or product for customers. Thus, what we do cares about customers because we are part of a team of people who delivers valued products and services important to customers. Often we have little visibility as to why our product benefits our customers. In many cases, our personal customer is an internal group within our organization. It is not a simple matter to come to the realization that our isolated contribution is critical, important and essential to the entire chain of team activities. We forget the chain is only as good as its weakest link. Often, we do not realize that the ordinary done with excellence becomes the extraordinary. We think the extraordinary must be spectacular, impressive, notable, and acclaimed — anything but the everyday ordinary done with excellence.

The second group of people is fellow employees of our organization. It is possible for a culture to value employees as critically important while still maintaining the first priority of delivering the products and services to customers. The apparent conflict of customers needs competing with employee needs must be resolved if caring about employees is to be realistic. Space does not allow a comprehensive discussion for "seeing" our way through the apparent conflict.

Third, suppliers of the organization are critically important for successfully delivering products and service its customers. And finally, investors who provide the capital to fuel the organization have a key role in propelling the company and deserve to have a fair return on their investment. Thus, people are a key to an organization's success.

As most engineers and scientists have discovered, the key to solving a vexing technical problem is asking the right question from the right viewpoint or framework. Finding our own unique purpose for why we do the work we do is no different. Pat answers, glib slogans, and slick quotes won't provide us with answers. Incomplete ideas that don't take into account all the realities of the workplace turn out to be unsatisfactory.

Adopting someone else's purpose won't fit our unique personality, interests, or skills. We have to consistently, persistently, and continually ask the question: "What is wrong with my 'people picture?'" Then one day something happens that provides us the words to describe the deeply motivating purpose we have for the work we do. It might be a boss or a customer who makes an offhand remark that gives us the words. The lawyer's client says, "This is great! You give structure to my dream."

C.R. Baugh, president of C. R. Baugh and Associates, has spent his entire career developing new products and technologies for the telecommunications industry after receiving a PhD in computer science from the University of Illinois. He started his career at AT&T Bell Laboratories and established his consulting firm in 1991.