Photo by James Pond on Unsplash

Very few people are happy with their jobs. It’s a sad truth, but one that can be corrected with a little change of attitude. Sometimes change is within reach, if you only bother to seek it. And no, I’m not reciting from self-help books. It’s the naked truth.

Today I’m here to share with you a universally-accepted point of view regarding work. Many great minds, including Edward L. Bernays, believed that putting bread on the table should only be a side effect of the work that we’ve set out to do in life. Bernays had a lot to say on the topic, including this:

“Never permit a dichotomy to rule your life, a dichotomy in which you hate what you do so you can have pleasure in your spare time. Look for a situation in which your work will give you as much happiness as your spare time.”

– Edward L. Bernays

Sometimes wrongfully attributed to Pablo Picasso, the citation stems from a 1986 book called “Are You Happy? Some Answers to the Most Important Question in Your Life” compiled by Dennis Wholey. Bernays reportedly pitched in with a short essay which included the above passage, among many other notable remarks.

Bernays, who died at the age of 104, was a pioneer in PR and propaganda and is often referred to as “the father of public relations.” He stood on the shoulders of Gustave Le Bon and Wilfred Trotter, using their research on crowd psychology together with the psychoanalytical work of Sigmund Freud, who just so happened to be his uncle.

Edward Bernays strongly advocated for the importance of psychological tests in the job selection process. Because experience can be acquired. Character and intelligence, not so much.