Three Career (And Life) Lessons From Ebenezer Scrooge

Patrick Stewart as Scrooge (Photo credit: tnarik)

“It’s enough for a man to understand his own business, and not to interfere with other people’s. Mine occupies me constantly. Good afternoon, gentlemen!” – Ebenezer Scrooge, before his reformation

It’s a tribute to the power of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol that it’s become a ubiquitous cliche in our culture. This season, Dickens’ tale is everywhere, from the stage to re-tellings in the movies and on television. But it’s a pity that it’s become such a cliche, too. I sometimes fear that by having the story so common in our culture, we miss its original power.

If you have time this season, I’d encourage you to read the original again with fresh eyes. Or, if you’d rather watch an adaptation, there is none better than TNT’s version starring Patrick Stewart.

In reviewing the life of Mr. Scrooge, there are three important lessons to learn for your own careers, so you don’t end up alone and miserable, even if you are rich.

Make Your Employees And Co-Workers Happy

“He has the power to render us happy or unhappy; to make our service light or burdensome; a pleasure or a toil.” 

From Bob Cratchit’s perspective, Ebenezer Scrooge was a miserable boss before his reformation. Even at the height of winter, Cratchit had to make do with one piece of coal to keep him warm. As a reward for his hard work on the holidays, Scrooge – begrudgingly – granted him the day off for Christmas. But not without calling Cratchit a thief for the holiday. Even so, Cratchit was grateful for it, even toasting Scrooge in the privacy of his own home at Christmas dinner.

By contrast, when Scrooge is visited by the Ghost of Christmas Past, he is brought back to the his first position, as apprentice to Fezziwig. There, he recalls a Christmas in which Fezziwig treated his employees and friends to a grand Christmas, filled with dancing, feasting and merriment. Watching the scene  Scrooge becomes lost in the past and the joy he felt on those moments.  To that scene, the Ghost of Christmas Past bemusedly notes that this was just a small thing. When Scrooge protests, the Spirit says, “He has spent but a few pounds of your mortal money: three or four perhaps. Is that so much that he deserves this praise?”

To which Scrooge replies, “Say that his power lies in words and looks; in things so slight and insignificant that it is impossible to add and count ‘em up: what then? The happiness he gives, is quite as great as if it cost a fortune.”

At work, especially if we’re a manager, but even if we’re not, we have the to make those around us happy or miserable. And the cost of doing either, as counted in money, often differs very little. But what a world of difference it makes in our lives and careers. Look at it this way – given the chance, would Bob Cratchit leave Scrooge for another job before his reformation? In a heartbeat, without looking back. But after his reformation? When Scrooge opened his heart and let the Cratchit family in? Not on your life.

Generosity and loyalty are rewarded in the long run, and they make a career and a job worth having.

Money Is A Means To An End; Not Its Own End

“His wealth is of no use to him. He don’t do any good with it. He don’t make himself comfortable with it.”

As the spirits show Scrooge his past, present and future, so do we understand how Scrooge became the man he was. Born poor and friendless, Scrooge made his way through the world with tenacity – determined that he would leave poverty behind him. But as he singlemindedly focused on wealth and status, the rest of his life fell to the wayside.  In particular, his avarice cost him the love of his life, because he cared more for money than he did for love. As Scrooge’s fiancee Belle said to him when she broke off their engagement, because he cared more for gain, “Another idol has displaced me; and if it can cheer and comfort you in time to come, as I would have tried to do, I have no just cause to grieve.”

Thus is the pattern’s of Scrooge’s life. Despite the lessons of his master Fezziwig, Scrooge closed his heart and mind to any thought but money. He was skillful in his trade – there was never any doubt of that. But his life had no other passions. And so when he saw his future, he saw that he would die miserable, alone and unloved. In the end, the amount of gold he had gathered mattered not at all.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to succeed in business, or earn a lot of money. But in putting our passion towards the ends of status and wealth, we often ignore everything else that makes life worth living. That’s something that should be desperately avoided. There are plenty of wealthy men who don’t live for their wealth. Take billionaire Elon Musk, for example, who could almost certainly be making more money than he is now in fields other than electric cars and space. But those are his passions, and he pursues them. Bill Gates has devoted a big hunk of his fortune to curing disease and educating children. And Chuck Feeney would be a billionaire several times over if he weren’t intent on making the world a better placewith his money.

Money is a tool, like any other. It’s a means to accomplishing an end. It’s not an end in and of itself.

Live A Life Without Fear

“He’s a comical old fellow,” said Scrooge’s nephew, “that’s the truth: and not so pleasant as he might be. However, his offences carry their own punishment, and I have nothing to say against him.”

When Scrooge’s fiancee, Belle, left him because of his greed, she explained to him why she thought it was that gold and gain had become his idols. “You fear the world too much. All your other hopes have merged into the hope of being beyond the chance of its sordid reproach. I have seen your nobler aspirations fall off one by one, until the master–passion, Gain, engrosses you. Have I not?”

When we hear this perspective, the character of Scrooge becomes much more apparent. Deep down inside, he was still the scared little boy, alone at Christmas with only his books for companions. Despite his intelligence and industry, Scrooge was never able to shake those fears. As a consequence, he never engaged with the world around him to understand the joy that is in it. Money became the only love in his life, and then he became a miser because he was afraid that the world would take that from him, too.

And how often does this happen to us? How often do we make ourselves miserable out of fear of losing something or someone – and then end up losing it anyway? Not despite our fears, but because of them. Fear and attachment cause us to act irrationally and make us miserable. But liberating ourselves from that fear brings us joy and happiness.

This is the key to Scrooge’s transformation – the realization that he had nothing to fear from other people. He could live his live in joy, open his heart, and the world would come to him. And if some people didn’t like him, or believe his transformation? Well, what of it? As Dickens closes his magnificent book:

“Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him.”

And so it should be for us all.

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Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2012/12/24/three-career-and-life-lessons-from-ebenezer-scrooge/