Ben at StartupSpark.com has posted an interview with me about happiness at work. Ben asked some great questions with a special focus on startups and entrepreneurs. And then there was this one:
Has anyone ever said to you, “Alex, you’re full of it. People just can’t be that happy at work!”
:o) Read the interview to see my answer. And congratulations to Bronwyn R. Lewis who won the contest Ben ran as a warm up to the interview. Bronwyn gets a copy of my book.
Say… would you like to interview me for your blog? I’d be happy to answer your questions about happiness at work – or whatever else you want to know. Send me an email with some questions and I’ll shoot the answers right back to you!
Very interesting Alex. I’ll send you some questions, if I can think of something good.
I’m glad the interview went well. Not only did I read it, I recommended that Ben interview you after finding your blog and I’m glad you took him up on it. He has some other good interviews as well that are entrepreneurial in nature.
Even though I didn’t win the book, I still plan on getting soon!
John: Please do!!!
Robert: Cool – thank you very much for making it happen! When you read the book, please let me know what you think!
That’s the best interview I’ve read yet, Alex, enjoyed it.
I found it curious that you drew out the comment from Milton Friedman about business. I’ve always read that differently. To me, Milton is saying that business should only be ultimately concerned with getting business done – in economic terms, making profit. That doesn’t mean that employers shouldn’t give employees fun, happy, and inspiring work environment – you’ve argued persuasively that they should. As you’ve said before, happy workplaces are a good way to increase profit too – precisely what I think Friedman was trying to get at – even if you only ultimately concern yourself with money, you have to concern yourself with happiness too. To me, the two are inextricably linked (together with running an efficient company, making products people really want to buy, and all the other things that help increase profit).
I should add the disclaimer that I’m a big fan of Friedman’s ideas anyway, as one could tell from a quick survey of some of my postings on my blog. But I don’t think anyone who understands how to run an effective business would discard your ideas out of hand (Google being an example that springs to mind again, simply because I’m unimaginative :)
Interesting perspective on Friedman. And I agree, that is probably what Friedman meant.
But: Today the quote is used mostly to justify a business approach that is solely focused on making a buck AND which ignores everything else. The irony is of course that this leads to lower profits :o)