“Whatever your life’s work is, do it well. A man should do his job so well that the living, the dead, and the unborn could do it no better.”
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The first time I ever read this quote from Martin Luther King, Jr., was in 1998. I was still in high school and I worked part-time as a telemarketer, cold-calling people to help them save money on their long distance telephone bills by switching to AT&T.
The quote was on a framed poster on the wall, hanging next to other inspirational posters, such as the infamous kitten dangling from a clothesline by both paws, encouraging you to “Hang in there!” There were others, but my focus was always drawn back to the poster with his words.
Back then, I believed King’s intended message was for people to want to be the best at their job. A popular professional wrestler at the time, Bret “Hit Man” Hart, used to say he was “The best there is, the best there was, the best there ever will be.” I thought of it like that. Another wrestler, “Nature Boy” Ric Flair, also said something similar. “To be the man, you gotta beat the man.” I thought I had to be better than everyone else.
As I’ve grown older, my thoughts have often turned back to the words by King and I have pondered them. I’ve often wondered if I might have missed some deeper meaning.
On the surface, there’s the obvious. You can’t be the best at everything, that would require perfection. I can do my job. I can even do it well, but can I really do it better than everyone else that has been or will be? Probably not.
I thought about King. I thought about his life’s work, his words, and his dedication to his dream of equality. When I read his words with the spirit of equality in my heart, instead of motivation, it opened my eyes. For me, it changed the meaning.
I now believe King was talking about equality. He said that a man should do his job so well no one could do it better, he didn’t say another man couldn’t do it just as well. If we all could set the bar at its highest and we could all work at that level, we would all be equal. It might also mean that you might have to help someone get to your level, or that someone might have to help you up.
I’ve tried to use that mindset as motivation for things I do. Rather than being discouraged by someone else’s success, I’m encouraged by it. They are setting the bar, and their success makes it possible for the rest of us; if someone else has done it, you can do it, too.
When I train a new associate at my job, I do everything I can to make sure they are at least as good as I am at my job. In fact, I hope they do even better. If they set the bar higher than I did, maybe I can learn something from them. I see opportunities like this as a win-win.
If they fail, it’s because I failed. If I measure my success by the success of others, I know I’m going to give my best. Treating others the way I would like to be treated, as an equal, seems like the right thing to do.
King also once said, “The time is always right to do what is right.” And that seems right enough to me. If you’re going to do something, do it right, and do it well.
Robert Critser, who lives in Burlington and works at Walmart Warehouse in Mount Pleasant, writes a freelance column for The Hawk Eye.