In many ways, it looks like Jeff Bezos has it all. But when is enough?
In a new book, “Career Self-Care: Finding Your Happiness, Success, and Fulfillment at Work,” Inc. Magazine columnist and Seattle-area writer Minda Zetlin points to the Amazon founder’s push for financial incentives for a second in the company’s pursuit. HQ is a prime example of the “dirty little secret about success.”
After the likes of Amazon’s Queens, NY, objected to financial incentives, a Bloomberg News report revealed that Bezos and Amazon were originally motivated by jealousy of the incentives that Elon Musk and Tesla were getting from Nevada for their Gigafactory. were received for, in spite of very different circumstances.
Zetlin sees a lesson here for the rest of us.
“We spend our whole lives looking for success. But where is that place, exactly?” She says. “If you’re the richest person in the world that you were at the time, and you’re still not satisfied, you’re still not happy, you’re still jealous of someone else, it seems. that it is not clear that there is There There.”
Zetlin’s book draws on his reporting, interviews, and personal experiences to examine self-care with the underlying notion that, for many of us, work and the rest of our lives are now inextricably linked.
The book covers a variety of topics through this lens:
- Bill Gates and Microsoft show how toxic leaders and companies can grow and improve, even as recent reports show the influence of the cultures they create.
- Seattle entrepreneur Jessica Loche-Eggert’s experiences reflect the challenges faced by mothers in the workplace and the power to control their own destiny.
- Zetlin details some of her struggles with personal and career self-care, and also shares tools she uses to manage her career and life, such as the techniques of “power-journaling.”
But ultimately, Zetlin makes it clear that the key isn’t some new time-management trick, but the ability to step back and change your mindset about how you value yourself and your career as a whole.
“We think in opposition to our work and our lives, and that idea is rooted in the term work-life balance. You have two things that are conflicting against each other, and they have to balance, and many times that Looks like,” she says.
“The fact is, it goes both ways,” she adds. “Who I am professionally informs who I am as a human being. Who I am as a human being tells who I am professionally, and there is no need to fight those two things.” .
Minda Zetlin joins us to talk about these topics in this episode of the GeekWire podcast and from her book, “Career Self-Care: Finding Your Happiness, Success, and Fulfillment at Work.”
Listen above, or subscribe to GeekWire on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.
Audio editing by Kurt Milton. Theme music by Danielle LK Caldwell.
