I’m not big on reviewing TV shows. (Not the way these folks are.) But there was a moment in the season three finale of Mad Men that’s still resonating with me several days later, and I think it’s worth discussing.
SPOILER ALERT: If you haven’t yet watched this episode and you still intend to, bookmark this post and read it later.
In the episode, the principals at ad agency Sterling Cooper discover that their company is about to be sold. The trio then conspires to buy their agency back, despite the fact that each of them stands to earn a substantial payday in the pending deal. So why not just go along for the ride? Don Draper sums it up in one sentence:
“I want to work.”
With Sterling Cooper having already been sold and restructured a year ago, Draper explains that he’s not in this for the paycheck, and definitely not for the office politics. He simply wants to do work that means something (to him, at least).
Remember What It Means to Have a Purpose?
In our modern era, fiscal tragedy dominates the headlines. People are hyper-aware of dollar signs, and what an absence of available money denies us. But what’s often lost in the discussion about our need for work is that work is about more than just the paycheck it brings. Work is about purpose.
Not a title, or a job description, or a winning answer to all those cocktail party icebreakers. A purpose in the sense of waking up in the morning and knowing that what you’re about to devote the next 8 to 12 hours of your life to actually matters. Maybe not to everyone, and maybe not to anyone other than you personally.
But especially to you personally.
It’s Never Too Late for Accountability
On Mad Men, Don Draper seems to have it all, except that he actually has nothing. His family, his friendships, even his identity is entirely an illusion — and one that he works tirelessly to sustain. With his personal and professional lives collapsing, he finally clarifies what actually matters to him: creating something that didn’t exist before, and judging himself according to his own actions.
That a character as tragically flawed as Don Draper should still demand to be judged ultimately by his actions says a lot about what the rest of us say too rarely.
Tags: America, Business, common sense, ethics, honesty, inspiration, pop culture, Sociology, tv
