The dignity of work
Winston Churchill was broke and needed a bailout. Mikhail Gorbachev did a Pizza Hut commercial. Here's what happens when smart people need to swallow their pride. Plus 7 other things worth reading.
 |
When Nazi Germany invaded France, and Winston Churchill became the prime minister of Great Britain, he had a big personal problem: He was flat broke.
Between his debts and overdue taxes and even the interest he had to pay "on his large overdraft," according to Mark Archer in The Wall Street Journal, he was in big trouble.
Fortunately, an Austrian-born English banker named Sir Henry Strakosch, came to the rescue, writing a check for £5,000, the equivalent today of about $250,000, so that Churchill's financial problems wouldn't divert him from the enormous task at hand.
Another story. By the late 1990s, Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union and a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, had lost all of his savings.
"I can explain it with pleasure because I have no problem with that," he said in an interview later (link is a video). "I had some financial problems ... so I did an advertisement for Pizza Hut."
Yes. Pizza Hut. (If you don’t see the video below, please enable images.)
Reportedly, Gorbachev made $1 million for doing the ad. It was enough to keep the anti-corruption foundation he'd started in Russia going a bit longer, Paul Musgrave explained at Foreign Policy recently.
(Musgrave’s article is what got me thinking about this theme over the past few days).
I’m Bill Murphy Jr. Welcome to Understandably, a daily email newsletter.
If you’re new here, why not sign up and get it every day?
Life happens
There are so many fantastically successful people -- good men and women who do great things in many different fields -- and who other people assume get rich in the process.
Sure, some do. But for others, life happens.
Examples abound throughout history. Ulysses S. Grant was nearly destitute and dying of throat cancer in 1884.
He left his family with an inheritance only because he spent his last months studiously churning out The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant.
(Also, because Mark Twain figured out how to market and sell 350,000 copies for him.)
Another president: Harry Truman. In 1953, he retired to private life. His sole asset was a $112.56 per month Army pension from World War I. (He refused to serve on boards or give paid speeches, finding it unseemly to trade on the office of the presidency.)
The dignity of work
It’s not just world-historical figures. Last year, a cashier at Trader Joe's in New Jersey was shamed on social media, after a customer recognized him as the actor Geoffrey Owens, who had a recurring role on The Cosby Show back in the 1980s.
Owens owned it. He appeared on Good Morning America wearing his Trader Joe's name tag and a Yale University hat (he'd graduated from Yale in 1983).
He talked about how he worked there because he needed the money, and took the moment to ask people to reflect on the dignity of work -- almost no matter what it involves.
How are you going to respond negatively to that?
Doing something right
It might seem incongruous to be writing about this now. The unemployment rate is as low as we can ever remember it being, and the stock market is at an all-time high. On paper we're in the middle of an amazing economy.
But at the same time, work is getting harder. And Americans are simply stressed beyond all previous recognition.
There are plenty of jobs, but they’re not as good, statistically speaking, than the ones people had 30 years ago. Even people who are doing well money-wise are simply putting in many more hours than ever before.
So if you find yourself doing things you never thought you'd have to in order to make ends meet, or if your business isn't quite what you hope sometimes, or if you beat yourself up for bad financial decisions, I think there's something inspiring in these stories.
I hope you’ll hold your head up high, and remember you’re not alone.
Even though we live in a society that often assigns value according to the size of people's bank accounts (sorry, brokerage accounts), we ought to take pride in the mere fact of doing what we have to do in order to get by.
If you’re doing that much, I think you’re doing something right.
7 other things worth reading
Modern cancel culture, explained. (The New York Times)
Australian police say they’re deploying the world’s first camera that can detect whether people are using mobile phones while they drive. (CNN)
Here’s what it’s like to run a small, independent movie theater in the age of Netflix. (The Wall Street Journal)
A massive database of text messages was hacked— mostly business messages to customers.
Coming soon (well maybe; Hollywood takes forever): WeWork, the Movie. (The Hollywood Reporter)
There were more Teslas on the road over Thanksgiving. There were not more chargers. Thus, there were some really long lines. (The Drive)
The Trump administration may slap a 100 percent tariff on French products.
Ideas and feedback actively solicited. Find me anytime on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter or via email at billmurphyjr@understandably.com. Be excellent to each other.
Create your profile
Only paid subscribers can comment on this post
Check your email
For your security, we need to re-authenticate you.
Click the link we sent to , or click here to log in.