Above: Yeah, Milton Glaser did that.
“What you want to do is keep working until you die.”
Read that sentence again. Does it make you cringe?
It sure made me cringe the first time I read it. I don’t know if this came about during the 90s, or what, but I always thought the idea was to till and toil in your twenties, so you could bank your way into an early retirement.
Not so, according to Milton Glaser’s response in a recent interview on Success Secrets of the Graphic Design Superstars. When asked what work he’s most gratified to have done, he answered, “I can’t say I am most gratified by anything. I think the issue for old-time professionals is sustaining. Right?” He then goes on to paraphrase T.S. Eliot(?): “The greatest blessing in life would be to die in the midst of work.”
I’m going to go out on a limb and say most people of my generation would vehemently disagree. We’re of the mind that the greatest blessing in life would be to die of heart failure while water skiing, on our third senior citizen’s Carnival Cruise to the Bahamas. We don’t want to work for the rest of our lives. We want to work while we’re young and spend our grey years basking in the spoils of our labor.
So what’s up with Milton Glaser? Is he just a bastion of the old guard who refuses to hang his hat? My theory is that Glaser represents a rare breed – the individual fortunate enough to absolutely and justly enjoy what it is he does for a living.
Sure, being a graphic designer can be fun but make no mistake about it, it’s a lot of work. It’s not all pretty colors and “cool” ideas. A lot of it is business. Actually, the more that I think about it, MOST of it is business. It’s the few hours in between the business when you get to do something fun and exciting, or you get to be a part of building someone’s brand, or you get to inspire people to take action that make it worthwhile.
As with any art, the joy is in the creation. That being said, would I want my withered and pixelbeaten dead body found hunched over my then-antique Ikea work desk? Probably not. But hey, I’m no Milton Glaser.
Read the interview:
Success Secrets of the Graphic Design Superstars: Milton Glaser
Tags:
interview, Milton Glaser, Work Ethic
“I don’t think of work as my job. I think of it as my life.”
As you said, he absolutely enjoys what he does. I’m not sure i buy it though. Yes there are gratifying moments but to the point of wanting to die in the midst of work? Thanks but I think i’ll take that bahamas cruise you mentioned!
At least he didn’t try to answer the question “what does it take to succeed?” Some successful people dish out these vague, semi-inspirational nonsense when asked this question so i appreciate that he was clear about there being no set recipe.
This is something I often think about. And for me the answer is definitely NO! I’m always amazed when someone hits it big, earning enough money for a lifetime and instead of using that financial freedom to explore other interests, or directly help people, whatever, they just start another company and continue working 60 hours a week.
My theory is the harder and more you work the more you become your work. At a certain point your lost, and while it that can make it easy to “love” work, I wonder how much of it is actual inspired living, and how much is a comfortable pattern you can not, or do not, want to break out of. Even if one’s cranking out cool shit.
I think we glorify work way too much in our society.
That said, it’s Milton’s prerogative, I just don’t get.
more lovin for glaser! yes. I think it’s the mark of a conscious person to realise that as long as we are involved intentionally in our decisions, we all want this: our work may be our families, our friends, our spiritual nature, our health, et cetera, though we immediately assume “career” as the epitome of the “work” idea. For some of us, our desires and intentions find home in our career, and this is true for Glaser, hence (career)-work as the ideal. But wouldn’t all of us wish to do, every day, what we love and is important to us, until we die? Sadly, not enough of us make our intentions or desires clear, even to ourselves, in order to find what is our “work” that we’d be happy to die doing. And that’s my two cents.