Published on: Friday, March 11, 2011
“What Ships Are For:” Working and Leading with Purpose
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When I was little and my dad was a giant and always in a hurry, I remember frisking alongside him, trying to keep up with his long strides as he made his way to his shop off Seventh Avenue in New York City's fashion district. In my memory, the sun bounces off the hood of a taxi and the smell of fresh-baked bread wafts in the air. The morning brims with purpose. My dad is going to work, and he is taking me along with him.
Probably the single most useful thing I ever learned from my dad was about purpose.
"A ship is safe in harbor, but that's not what ships are for," he'd say. Picture being small and hearing these words being spoken by a man of mythical stature with a Greek accent. It is possible to imagine the Homeric overtones of such a moment.
Many of us look to our careers for concrete evidence that we have purpose. More and more of us seek out work that "has meaning," satisfies the things that we consider important, absorbs us and energizes us. Yet, there are few things more soul-crushing than doing work that we ourselves do not bring our own purpose to.
My father didn't look to his job to give him purpose. He brought his purpose to his work. His purpose — call it his quality of grace, what he was about, the thing he stood for — was to design something beautiful that the world didn't know it was missing. He introduced his purpose into whatever was in front of him at that particular moment. Everything he did, he did with astonishing uniqueness; doing it any other way would have been a contradiction of purpose.
He used the vocabulary of his particular soul to express his purpose. My dad frequently sprinkled Greek proverbs into English conversations to add emphasis to his meaning. Here's one: "Για τo εχασε τo πεταλo." Translation:
"Because of the nail he lost the horseshoe." Meaning, "If you don't take care of small problems, they eventually get bigger." Another favorite: "Moναχo;ς σoυ χoρευε κι' oσo Θελεις πnδα," which translates to
"Dance by yourself and you can jump as much as you want." If you are alone you can do as you wish, but in a group you have to take others into consideration. And one more, on the perils of democratic indecisiveness: "Oι πoλλες γνωμες Βoυλιαζoυν τo καραβι".
"Too many opinions sink the boat." Everyone in his shop knew what he meant by what he said, and what was expected of them.
His authenticity, energy, joy, love and inspiration were infectious, and that made it exciting to work with him. He invested his purpose into his business. He witnessed the result of his own creativity and purpose upon the well-being of others. His business was purpose-based first. Profit followed.
Today, I lead a handful of people. I try and do the things I observed my father doing when he was a giant. I understand now what he meant about the ships: Purpose is not separate from ourselves. Simply by expressing our true selves we give something of great value to our work, the world and ourselves.
The world needs our astonishing uniqueness to make it the astonishing place it is. When we are holding our true selves back, we become like the ship safe in harbor. And that's not what ships are for.
Anthony Vlahos
Lessons learned from and about six-figure leadership and executive career management
