Language shapes the way we think: How we understand work and performance

This post can change you.

We would like to provide you with interesting and perhaps even important impulses through our contributions. Every result, every consequence is the direct outcome of your own decisions and that is a good thing. It creates valuable experiences and enables progress.

At via bonum we surround ourselves with people whose work is based on a foundation of honesty. More precisely on the sincere willingness to share acquired knowledge and thus create the opportunity to bring about positive change, on a grand scale to make the world a better place. What may sound like a fairy tale in today's world and is often dismissed as mere marketing rhetoric, especially when personal contact is encouraged, is actually based on a simple principle: What you send out comes back to you.

As so often this morning I listened to Roger Köppel from Weltwoche. He is an extraordinary person and a highly perceptive journalist. He is often my source of inspiration and information as well as an outstanding speaker, emotional, with a linguistic culture, vocabulary and eloquence that are rarely found in Germany today.

Now however to a perspective that I can hardly tolerate anymore as it exposes the stupidity or at the very least the narrow mindedness of some people and a knowingly ideologically degenerated society. Many of you will quickly realize which group of intellectually misguided individuals this refers to.

It is about a journalist's question to the chairman of the Left Party in Germany, Jan van Aken:

"What do you have against billionaires?"

His response:

"No one works so hard that they would earn a million per hour."

Roger Köppel's response to this quote:

"That is a mistaken idea!"

"Yes indeed, one does not become rich from working, he does not understand what it is really about.

Work does not make you rich but performance does, especially the kind of performance that is recognized by others. Many people believe they are achieving a lot for themselves, sure. But you have to provide a service that holds value for someone else. That is the immense power of civilization and the free market economy when one is so to speak compelled to think about others as well. What can I contribute usefully to society? Where am I valuable to others, not just in my own perception? Many people work but too few truly perform."

For me, these are powerful words that I have internalized in a similar form as guiding principles for decades. They are the values we at via bonum represent, yet they remain inaccessible to many who, blinded by envy and an almost disdainful attitude toward success, fail to recognize the true foundation and purpose of their existence.

Is it not true that every human being is born with brilliant and often unique abilities, receiving the gift of life along with the responsibility to nurture and develop these talents? This is an incredibly powerful premise, one that serves not only personal benefit but also the greater good.

With these possibilities comes a responsibility and at the same time it is an indescribable form of selfishness not to fully utilize our talents for the benefit of the community. As we know, the only way to grow in our abilities and ultimately achieve a certain degree of independence is through the multiplication of our knowledge and the process of passing on our skills to others.

It is not about the traditional sale of our labor by the hour, that is servitude.

I am convinced that these thoughts and words can unleash motivation with an energy capable of leading to horizons once deemed impossible. I experience this daily in my work and wish you the same joy in discovering your own potential.

From these very thoughts we at via bonum founded the Academy to help you become aware of your own brilliance and to provide targeted impulses for your personal development. We are surrounded by countless opinions, people and impressions that can easily mislead us. The key is to choose the path of free development and consciously invest in your human capital. Let us walk this path together.

The good path.

Yours Manfred Riebel

via bonum AG