Time to Move from Disruption to Self-Actualization

Watching the videos of students causing mayhem at Columbia, Yale, USC and other formerly-respected universities, I have to wonder what they think they are actually doing, or hoping to achieve.

When interviewed, many display a shocking lack of knowledge of the Mideast or the fundamental “facts on the ground”, as the media likes to say. They don’t seem to know, and I certainly don’t, why the Hamas atrocities have incited them to support Hamas and to attack the Jewish state that was the victim of those atrocities.

Interestingly, on March 3, 2024, Andy Kessler wrote a column in the Wall Street Journal titled “Profit Can be Your Purpose”. Kessler cited studies that show young people now link their jobs to their “sense of purpose”. Moreover, they expect their employers to provide that sense of purpose as part of the work experience. 

I wonder whether this “sense of purpose” now includes political and social protests, even for ill-defined purposes. Perhaps students now only want to work in companies that are seen to be wholly compassionate and provide nothing but benefit to society. Perhaps they they want their sense of purpose to include disrupting society in the name  of those things in the world order that they see as unfair or harmful.

But this requires them to make judgments that are often highly nuanced. For example, where would a pharmaceutical company fit along this continuum – producing life saving drugs or price gouging? To make this judgment the students would need to understand the linkage between research spending and the relatively few drugs that make it to commercialization. How many do?

I suspect what the students are missing, because they haven’t had the experience, is that a life well-lived achieves many tangible and intangible goals, and in ways that are far more productive than pitching pup tents in the Columbia University quad, and attacking “Zionist” students, teachers and visiting lecturers.

I spent thirty years working for FMC Corporation, a major manufacturer of chemicals and equipment. In my segment of the company, we safely made and distributed chemical products that made all manner of consumer products possible.  

I always believed that the needs of the company came first, with the needs of the employees second. I still believe this today.

What I discovered during that career, was that my needs were nevertheless met and exceeded in ways I never envisioned at the outset. It was by working hard, coming to work each day determined to give it my best, and focusing on ways in which we could do things better, that I began to grow as an individual. It enhanced my own sense of purpose. 

In dealing with customers, suppliers and regulators, I got the opportunity to meet and collaborate with wonderful business people all over the world, to make enough money to raise a family, and to enjoy the ultimate win-win between employer and employee.

At the conclusion of my corporate career, I taught business courses at liberal arts Ursinus College, for fifteen years, and I tried to convey these life lessons to my students. For those I never had the opportunity to teach, I wrote a book of advice for future students, hoping they might come across it during their preparations for college.

Sadly, many students fail to think seriously about these concepts during their college years. They don’t understand that their own fulfillment is tied up with helping the organization make life better for others – better products, better medicines, better services and better technology of all types.

In terms of social justice and support for those in need, our employees regularly worked in our communities to contribute what we could of ourselves. I’ll never forget the house of an elderly Houston resident that needed substantial maintenance, which she was not able to provide. A beehive of FMC Houston-area employees descended on her house, painting, scraping, repairing, staining and in one day making that old house look like new.

Finally, my colleagues voted. We didn’t vote the same way, but we voted our consciences after taking the time to understand as much as we could about the choice of people and policies that we were being asked to support. Working hard in a business helps one to analyze the political issues with the same rigor we devoted to business issues, and underpinned our efforts to influence government decisions in a mature and thoughtful way, rather than through social disruption.

So, for the current crop of student protesters, I would advise them to follow this path – go to work, make products and provide services that help people. Make money for yourselves and responsibly raise a family, devote time to your role in society, and make your voice heard. 

Just don’t engage in embarrassing juvenile protests and pitched battles with police. Go back to the classroom, the library and the laboratory. Rise above such nonsense.