Resume Virtues Versus Eulogy Virtues, Which Are You Building?

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What It’s About: This blog title is a quote from the “Red Bull of Management Thinking,” Tom Peters. A friend, and culture raconteur, Hilton Barbour, recently interviewed Tom. The following is a purposefully provocative quote from Peters, captured by Hilton during the interview: (It’s a great read, congrats Hilton).

“Then on my scale of evil people, very near the top up there with Mr. Facebook, is Milton Friedman. In 1970, he wrote a famous article in the New York Times which said business has no responsibility other than to make money for shareholders. That thinking led to a ripple effect of the most terrible kind. If you want a hard number of Friedman’s opinion, in 1970, 50% of corporate profits went to the owners and execs and 50% went to employees and research. By 2015, which is 45 years later, 91% of corporate profits went to stock, buy backs, executive pay, dividends on share, share from shareholders. And 9% went back to the people in the business. I mean, I can’t stress this enough, I want to use my sailor's language words and find a set of terms much stronger than disgusting…

All this stuff we know we ought to do, but we forget it when we start looking at spreadsheets or whatever the hell else it is.”

So What?: Hilton’s convo with Peters underscores that the primary message in all of his 20 books is essentially the same: PUT PEOPLE FIRST! Excellence Now: Extreme Humanism.

Another one of Peters’ famous sayings is, “The blinding flash of the obvious.” “Make products that are cool instead of cheap, take care of people incredibly well, focus on your community and sustainability and be a caring, compassionate and inclusive leader. That’s it. But here’s what pisses me off. All the things I'm talking about, the people stuff, the design stuff, the soft stuff, that's also the very best way to make money too. And yet that’s not the stuff that gets the focus. Incredible.”

Now What?: Perhaps the best way to end this blog is with Tom’s poignant reminder: “Nobody ever had their net worth on a tombstone.” What people will ask about is how we improved the lives of those around us. We in formal leadership roles have a unique privilege to deeply care about people, including challenging them to grow. We have the opportunity to add a few more lines on that tombstone. I doubt it will be about how much net income we made at the places we worked.

Think Big, Start Small, Act Now.

- Lorne

One Millennial View: My favorite part of Peters’ quote is “all the things I’m talking about… that’s also the very best way to make money too.” It feels like it sometimes TAKES financial security to then have the clarity to develop the mindset that lets us focus on what’s truly meaningful on our tombstones, even though the same “people first” actions should be the path chosen even if you’re broke. Of course, we all need money. However, it’s nice to confirm that experienced and successful people create eulogy virtues that pay off.

- Garrett

Edited and published by Garrett Rubis

Resume Virtues Versus Eulogy Virtues, Which Are You Building?

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