I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: The ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve - Albert Schweitzer

Do you agree with Albert Schweitzer? To what extent is this true for you? If you think about it, it is hard to imagine an unhappy person saying he is so unhappy because he can’t serve anyone. When we are unhappy we tend to feel we are deprived in some way or another and deserve more and better. We then feel that we are not served well by life in general, by our family, by our work, our society, our country or even by God. To follow Schweitzer’s advice will be to reverse our thinking about what is needed for happiness: Not how well we are served, but how well we serve. So let’s see what this would mean.

Firstly, I believe Schweitzer is not suggesting that we choose to serve others in order to find happiness. Rather, it is a case of what we see as our destiny. Does our life have a purpose? If so, what is it? Is it fundamentally about what we can do to advance ourselves or is it something else and is service part of it? As you know, the rare experiences we have of another person that truly served us, are marked by the fact that it was authentic. It is hard, if possible at all, to fake service. I think we can sense if people do something in the name of service while they actually feel they don’t have much of an option – it’s their duty or it’s in their own interest. The ‘will’ factor, the main concern, always comes through - even in the business world where we get used to the fact that any form of service usually has a price. The idea that life can be reduced to a series of transactions is a false one. We are intensely aware of the underlying motives in the way we interact and we are intensely aware of it’s meaning or lack of meaning. So, the first point is that serving others implies authenticity and therefore is an outcome of a belief about the purpose of life. It is not about performance and reward.

Secondly, the kind of service that Schweitzer believes brings happiness to the servant, is something unique to the individual. It is like our thumbprint. We do not have the same talents, the same opportunities in life or the same set of life experiences. The combination of these things gives us an ability to serve in a unique way and with a unique quality. The closer we get to our thumbprint service the higher the quality and the satisfaction we get from it. This again means that only I can take responsibility for it and only I can design the nature and way I live as a servant. As I grow in life experience, knowledge and wisdom, the design will change as well. It evolves as my personal vision. But then we also have to add: Schweitzer’s words ‘sought and found how to serve’ include sacrifice, commitment and hard work.

Where does our profession or career fit in to the design of our lives as servants? For many people, the lack of alignment they experience is a huge source of their unhappiness. It can relate to their choice of career or it can get confused with what they experience in a particular environment. There’s no easy answer to what we should do when we cannot see how we can offer our thumbprint service at our work. At least we need to ask ourselves:

• Is what I want to do and see as my best service offering incompatible with my current work?
• Are the obstacles that I see really obstacles or perhaps only my perception and untested views of it?
• How much of my thumbprint service offering can still be realised outside of my formal work - and is therefore not blocked by it?
• Am I overlooking a need at work that I can meet with my capabilities?
• In absence of recognition or reward, do I tend to underestimate the value of my service?

One last aspect of living as a servant – I cannot see that it can lead to hurting those closest to you. Rather, we foster and grow the attitude and behaviour of a servant within our inner circle. As it works with successful relationships, there will be times when we sacrifice some part of our own will for the time being and in the interest of our loved ones. What we can offer the world as servants is not only the making of our own visions, efforts and hard work but includes the roles others, particularly our loved ones, play in our lives. Happiness, after all, is not happiness if we cannot share it with others.

As I’m sure you know already, I firmly believe that good leadership is also servant leadership. I therefore would like to encourage you to find your own answers to the aspects of servanthood that I rose.

Sharing these thoughts with you, is my own attempt to serve you.

Enjoy the month of April. How nice will it be if we can celebrate a World Cup victory!

Best wishes