Tag: Work

Don’t Break the Chain: The Value of Persistence

On By Christopher PierznikIn Career, Fatherhood, Life, WorkLeave a comment
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I began playing organized basketball at the age of six.

By the age of ten, I was playing year-round for various travel teams in various leagues, almost always in the age bracket above mine. There was never an offseason. Camps, practices, summer leagues, fall leagues, spring leagues, open gyms – I did it all. When state rules prevented us from holding official practices, we all met at our point guard’s home and conducted practices on the full court in his backyard.

Basketball was an everyday thing.

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Workaholism Is Overrated

On By Christopher PierznikIn Career, WorkLeave a comment

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“My old man worked hard. All they did was give him more work.”

— Larry Wilson, Weekend at Bernie’s

There are people that take pride in being the last one at work, their car always in the parking lot, their light the only one on in an otherwise pitch-black office. Their career is their life. They’re still at their desk while the cleaning crew vacuums around them.

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The Work Is What Matters

On By Christopher PierznikIn Career, Life, Work, WritingLeave a comment

“The world is divided into people who do things and people who get the credit. Try, if you can, to belong to the first class. There’s far less competition.”

— Dwight Morrow

As Ryan Holiday writes in Ego Is the Enemy, John Boyd is “one of the most influential strategists and practitioners in modern warfare,” yet he’s “someone most people have never heard of.”

The fact that Boyd is unknown is fitting, because his lasting legacy is a speech he gave to scores of young officers that has come to be known as the “To Do or To Be” speech:

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Life Lessons I Learned While Working Manual Labor

On By Christopher PierznikIn Career, WorkLeave a comment

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I lead a sedentary lifestyle. I work in an office and I read and write in my spare time. The most non-sitting that occurs in my day is my nightly routine of doing the dishes, where my six-foot-three frame has to stoop just to reach the bottom of the sink.

This general lack of movement and exertion is the only thing I miss about working manual labor.

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The Hellishness of a Ridiculously Long Daily Commute

On By Christopher PierznikIn Business, Career, WorkLeave a comment

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This is the second entry in a three-part series on modern life in work and business – you can read part one here.

I recently accepted a new job and the first question everyone asks isn’t “What’s the position?” or “What is the organization?” or even “Is it a promotion?” The question is, “Is it a shorter commute?”

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What Could Have Been: Lessons and Regrets from My First Job

On By Christopher PierznikIn Career, Lessons, WorkLeave a comment

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Last night, I was reading a story online that mentioned the woman that was the CEO of the first organization in which I worked after college. As I fell down a rabbit hole of reading associated articles, it mentioned her successor, the woman that had been the VP of Finance when I was there – in other words, my boss’s boss.

The more I read, the more I found myself thinking about that job and that organization.

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