Article #22 Work

The Glass Houses of Work.

Part of our building Soul Roadmaps with people includes this rest area of work.  I was doing a site visit to a business for a new person as a part of the initial relationship building process.  While I was waiting, I observed something which transported me back to my “old stomping grounds” of commerce and industry as an Investment Adviser. It was one of those WE WORK facilities, where lots of organizations occupy independent offices but also have access to shared spaces and administrative services.  Just inside the reception area was the centerpiece of the facility, a large glassed in conference room with a fully equipped digital communication platform, with flat screens and a state-of-the-art secure WIFI array. It had everything any company would need to do “deals”.

On this particular day it was “let’s make a deal”.  This was business in the trenches.  The sellers, clearly a middle-aged husband and wife team, were surrounded by their lawyers and bean counters with shirt sleeves rolled up and hunched over linked up laptop computers at one end of the giant conference table.  At the other end of the table were the buyers, decked out in their uniforms complete with pinstripes, button down collars and polished shoes.  One could almost smell the cologne and money through the glass.

A week later it was just the husband and wife occupying the glassed-in conference room.  They were engaged in a serious heated discussion complete with gestures of fists in palms and furrowed brows.  The longer it lasted the more compelling it became for me to do something.  Tap Tap Tap on the glass door with my ring on my left-hand finger.  It startled the couple but both of them were inviting me inside, using a cocker-spaniel tilt of the head.

Can I help?  Pregnant pause–“You are inside a transaction, right?”

Characteristic slow nodding of heads.

Another pregnant pause–“You have a letter of intent and a non-disclosure agreement negotiated last week in here, correct?”

More nodding.

“And, now they have now thrown you a curve ball into the deal.”

Another cocker-spaniel tilt of the heads in the opposite direction this time, “How do you know all that?”

” I was observing the interactions last week and again now”  We serve the owners of a business located here within this WE WORK facility.

“Once upon a time in a galaxy far far away…… I wore pin stripes.  Can I help?”

After furtive glances back and forth she finally said, “They want a long non-compete clause.  If this business goes south, we lose our financial security and our ability to engage in work to earn a living.”

They own an import/export business, bringing goods from the Far East and Latin America to distribute in the U.S.  They are selling to a much larger distributor in the U.S.

“What got you started way back when? Why this business?”

He said, ” It is just us. We don’t have any kids and we love to travel.  We love the relationships we have built worldwide, and the connections created within our enterprise over the years. Now the business has moved to an on-line and supply chain distribution model.  We make more money, but the work now is, frankly, looking at his shoes, boring. The business has changed into just a technology driven logistics hub managing bureaucracy.”

I asked, “If there were a way to better secure the transaction, and there is by the way, you two are still quite young with a lot of living left in your years.  What will you do with your time?”

With a quiver in her chin, “We were never able to have children of our own, but we both simply love youngsters.  Whatever we do will include kids.  He nodded looking down at his shoes again.

Hmmm, cross section of travel and kids Hmmm

“Ya know, there is an organization in town that has been doing travel trips for groups.  They specialize in tours for schools especially performing music groups.  The Owner is a friend.  After 45 years he is considering slowing his pace a bit.  This might be part of your Soul Roadmap.”

“Soul Roadmap?  What’s that?”  Now the cocker spaniel tilts got stronger.

I handed over a card, “I am a soul guide.”  We help people build their own Soul Roadmaps.  We work with a company just down the hall.  The world of work is one of the rest stops. It sure seems like it might be a fit for you two to learn what God has in mind for you for the balance of your lives together while you occupy time and space here on earth.”

Amazing developments occur by an unexpected tap tap tap of a ringed finger on the Glass House of Work with the intent of helping out.  Soul Roadmaps are built using counter cultural behaviors and the willingness to step out as well as to explore the help offered.

Does your world of work send an echo into eternity?  Or is it just treading water until something else happens?  Building a Soul Roadmap is empowering!