The Helping Professions Need Help

It's been 25 years since I chose Social Work for my major in college.  Like most idealists who enter this field, I wanted to make a difference –  and not just a little difference. I wanted to make a BIG difference. Somehow that was commingled with an aspiration for titles and leadership roles. 

The longer I work in this field, the more I see the self-serving under-belly of these aspirations.  It's the same spirit I see in the corporate and entertainment industries only with altruistic language wrapped around it.  I see it all over on LinkedIn too.  How many lists of top 30 under 30 do we really need?  Enough with the celebrity worship.  I prefer to hear about the 60 people over 60 who still care. 

What ever happened to pure service?  Have we as a field lost the magic of “helping?”  

I can’t tell you how many interviewees tell me that their goal is to start their own non-profit. When was the last time a candidate said that they just want to be helpful?  When was the last time someone said that their career goal was to help people one at a time? 

I feel like Martin Luther King, Jr. is calling to us from the grave: 

“Not everybody can be famous but everybody can be great because greatness is determined by service… You only need a heart full of grace and a soul generated by love.”

“Helping” matters.  “Helping” is greatness. We have enough non-profit empires.  Who needs another fiefdom?  What the world needs is passionate workers not more guests on NPR talking about how great their “start up” is. 

As I read back over this piece, it strikes me that I sound like that crotchety old boss that says, “You can’t find good workers nowadays.” 

Let me keep it real. I was there. I am still there some days. We all have a side of us that wants to make it big someday.  There is a part of all of us that likes the shiny new project or  idea. So let me write to my own heart and to yours, 

“If you really want to make a difference, if you really want your life to count, find someone who feels like you do, slide in beside them, and start helping along with them.  Just . . . start . . . helping . . . then keep on.  The connection and satisfaction you feel from simple acts of service done with like-minded people will bring you unbelievable meaning and joy. Thankfully, I found a lot of people like that over my career. I hope you do too, because these will be the people you remember. They will be the ones that help you know that your life was lived well.”