Know Why You’re Doing It

Stewart Butterfield, founder and CEO of Slack, in a piece called “Rules of Business” from Issue 10 of Offscreen Magazine:

If you are just out to make money, god bless: I hope you make some money. If you just want awards or recognition or for others to think highly of you, I hope you get that too. But I don’t think anyone is really satisfied by fame or fortune. I find it incredibly satisfying (and gratifying, rewarding and pleasant) to honestly have done the best job I could have done on something and I believe that works for everyone else too. Being skillful and exercising your mastery is what you’re here to do. Doing anything less undermines the whole point of being alive.

That last point about mastery being the fundamental purpose of life is such a powerful idea. We are here to get better at what it is we set out to do.