Chapter 15 expands on the question of the role of work and money in the attempt to develop a full and happy life. What does it mean to live a good life, and how can one plan for such a life? What does it mean to be a “good” businessperson rather than only a “successful” businessperson? In the best case scenario, Chapter 15 argues, the two are one and the same.

The Rolling Stones famously sang that “You can’t always get what you want . . . but you just might find, that you get what you need.” Is that true? And if it is true, how does one balance one’s wants and needs? Robert C. Solomon opens the chapter with a concrete list of helpful questions for sorting one’s wants, needs, and values. Solomon argues that a good life is more than just good luck: it is the result of intelligent forethought and planning

The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle argues that happiness is the goal of a good life and examines what kind of character and life one should cultivate to achieve happiness. For Aristotle, the best life is the life of the mind. Epicurus is another ancient Greek philosopher who argues that a good life is fundamentally a happy life, and a happy life, he writes, is one that is full of thoughtfully chosen enduring pleasures (like friendship).

In the first of her two contributions to this chapter, Joanne B. Ciulla considers what values might guide us as we make decisions about our work and life. Using Aesop’s fables, she asks us to consider whether we want to work like an ant, a grasshopper, or a bee. In other words, do we place more value on security, leisure, or meaningful work?

Solomon Schimmel considers the negative power of greed in human business life. Then, in her second essay in this chapter, Joanne B. Ciulla looks at meaningful work and meaningful jobs. She notes that meaningful work has both subjective and objective features, considers what vices might be incompatible with it, and discusses whether organizations have an obligation to provide meaningful work to their employees.

Lynne McFall looks at a different good that is sometimes threatened by our work lives: the good of integrity. What does it mean to be a person of integrity? How important is that good to you?

The great English philosopher Bertrand Russell argues for the importance of “impersonal interests” in the good life: to lead good, happy, worthwhile lives, we should pursue activities that are not part of our narrow or immediate self-interest.

By the close of Chapter 15, you should:

• Understand several ways of planning for the good life
• Understand how Aristotle, Epicurus, and others help us to think about the good life
• Understand the concepts of meaningful work and integrity 
• Understand how wealth ought to operate in the good life, and how it can interfere in a good life
• Reflect on your own values and form some ideas about what you want from your work and life

 

Suggested Readings

Sylvia Ann Hewlett. “Executive Women and the Myth of Having It All.” Harvard Business Review 80 (April 2002).

Joel Kupperman. Six Myths about the Good Life. Boston: Hackett, 2006.

Tom Morris. If Aristotle Ran General Motors. New York: Owl Books, 1998.

Juliet B. Schor. “The Overspent American: European and American Lifestyles and the Overspent Consumer.” In The Overspent American. New York: Basic Books, 1998.

Robert C. Solomon. Ethics and Excellence. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. 

Robert C. Solomon and Clancy Martin. Morality and the Good Life. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003.

Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi. “What’s Hurting the Middle Class.” Boston Review (September–October 2005).

 

Websites

Learn more about Aristotle’s view of the good life at http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-ethics/

Learn more about Andrew Carnegie at http://library.columbia.edu/indiv/rbml/units/carnegie/andrew.html

Visit the philanthropic organization established by Andrew Carnegie at www.carnegie.org/

Read “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All,” an essay on balancing parenthood and a professional career, by Anne-Marie Slaughter, at http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/07/why-women-still-cant-have-it-all/309020/

Read a Salon.com article about workaholism at http://www.salon.com/2012/10/02/workaholism_is_real/

Visit Workaholics Anonymous to learn more about workaholism at http://www.workaholics-anonymous.org

Read an entrepreneur’s advice on how to help employees find meaning in their work at https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidkwilliams/2017/06/25/defining-and-finding-meaning-in-work/#60cbbbc73aa5