Working from the Heartland

Do you believe employee engagement programs really work? Do you believe you can find work that is challenging, fulfilling and rewarding on the most meaningful levels? You can believe in these ideals. But only if you believe it's possible to truly love your job in everyday life.

Take a look around you. Can you think of any of your friends and coworkers who are over the moon about their jobs? Most people can't come up with a single name (even though we're surrounded by people who love their work.) It's not suprising. Our focus has been trained on job unhappiness for too long.

Most of our cultural messages concerning work tell us that work is hell. We're so busy focusing our efforts in finding solutions to our problems of career building (on the personal side) and motivation (on the leadership side) that we haven't spent much time studying the essential ingredients to loving your work – plain and simple, without all that fancy theory, incentive plans, coffee mugs and mylar balloons.

In 1997 I set out on a journey that changed my life. I loaded my car with four seasons of clothes, tons of CDs (this was pre-Ipod days), one laptop and three cats. And I started driving around the country looking for stories of ordinary people who love their work – plain and simple.

My mission: To prove that it's possible to love your work in America (this was before I went global). My theory: You don't have to be extraordinarily talented, extraordinarily connected, extraordinarily educated or extraordinarily lucky. Or extraordinarily wealthy. (Can't forget the paycheck factor.)

My results: I was right. (Of course.) Everywhere I went I found an abundance of examples of ordinary folks who cherished their work. The stories were originally published in my website, Working From the HeartLand. And now I've selected the best ones and reproduced them here.

What I knew: Every person has a story to tell. What I didn't know: Each person's story reveals a universal lesson or essential ingredient that can help anyone find deeply fulfilling work.

I'm still traveling around the country talking to and writing about people who love their work. (The cats are happily ensconced at home, though, and I'm deeply grateful to Apple for inventing the I-Pod.) Every now and then I'll post additional interviews and profiles on this tab. So keep coming back.