Last evening I had the rare pleasure of being reunited with an old and dear friend from my university years. Our friendship was forged not just at school, in fact he and a few friends and I went on a volunteer vacation in West Virginia where we spent our holiday renovating a poverty-stricken neighborhood. We also bicycled around southern Germany, covering some 50-60 miles per day as we moved from Heidelberg to Munich to Lake Constance, through the Black Forest, to Freiburg and back to Heidelberg. What a trip!

Our paths after university diverged, his centered on education, while mine focused primarily in healthcare, yet we found in our conversation that our career and personal lives had many elements in common. Our children are roughly the same ages, our larger life interests (to better humanity in some way) had not changed from that time and the industries in which we work are both in terrible need of fundamental reform.

He went on to obtain his PhD and has worked with organizations like Teach for America, always preferring to work with inner city schools, and his heart is a big as his smile. He is now Headmaster of a Core Knowledge K-5 charter school in Indiana and is loving the challenge of running what is essentially a small business that has the potential to change the future for the lives of those whom he serves. What a wonderful job! No doubt it has its challenges, but he seems to have developed the ability that is so precious to businessmen, the ability to appreciate to the depth of his soul the opportunities at his doorstep from day to day.

Do you see what you do as an opportunity to better the world? So doing is one of the criteria for truly living rather than simply existing. One of the elements we agreed could use revitalization in our educational system is the matter of providing a sufficient base of knowledge to students so that they could attain the necessary cultural literacy to not just survive, but thrive in the American system. The challenge, of course, is to decide which elements must be taught to a group of inner city children, for instance, so that they can have a fighting chance against the gravitational pull of social determinism.

I don’t envy my friend’s position and responsibilities, but I do admire his courage, tenacity and generosity in the face of seemingly impossible odds. This brings me to another ability so important to those who desire success in their careers, namely, the ability to say with confidence-coated humility, “don’t tell me the odds.”

I’ve come to the conclusion that it is not so much what you do that matters, but the spirit and attitude in which you do it that counts. No job is necessarily better than another, and while one position may give you more scope of influence than another, every job you can or will hold in your lifetime is an aperture through which you can serve your fellow man, if you so chose.

Never waste time simply biding your time until something bigger or better comes along. Fill what you have to overflowing and watch what happens. I guarantee you’ll be delighted with the results.

Oh yes, one more thing. If you get a chance to catch up with an old friend, I highly recommend it! You never know what creative thoughts it might spark in relation to your goals and dreams.