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Love Your Day Job

by Mike Ma

"Enjoy that perfectly made beverage!"

"Sir, that latte was made perfectly by the finest barista on the east side... or the west side, for that matter."

I was having coffee at a Starbucks at 47th and 3rd and I heard a loud Brooklyn accent bellowing out the above statements. Instead of just saying "Vanilla latte!" when a drink was completed, this gentleman endorsed his own product with such authenticity and enthusiasm it was hard to not get excited about what you were drinking, or at the very least be pleased and amused.

As the typical turn-of-the-year take-your-bonus-and-run season is upon us, I encourage everyone to think of this guy who probably makes an hourly wage. He took a potentially mundane, low-paying job and exerted a lot of pride to his work. Before you consider jumping ship, I encourage you to consider, for a few minutes, if you feel half as enthusiastic about your job as this barista does about his. To that end, I am spending this part of the year asking myself:

• How can I make my job more interesting?
• What are the things that I control that can make me excited about my work?
• How am I mastering my own fate and controlling my own happiness?

Forget budgets, comp, headcount... While most of the people in our industry have an income I will guess is at least a solid order of magnitude more than that of the Brooklyn Barista, I entreat you to ask yourself: are you half as happy as the Brooklyn Barista? What can you control to affect your own happiness?