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Three stone-cutters were asked what they were doing.

The first replied: "I am making a living."

The second kept on hammering while he said: "I am doing the best job of stone-cutting in the entire county."

The third one looked up with a visionary gleam in his eyes and said:  "I am building a cathedral."

In most organizations, most employees think they are making a living cutting stones.  But they aren't, at least not the ones who aspire to be leaders in the organization. 

The effective ones are building a cathedral.  The ones who want to make a dent in the world are building cathedrals.  

The great business thinker Peter Drucker wrote, "The great majority of employees are occupied with efforts rather than with results.  They worry over what they are 'owed' for those efforts. They are conscious above all of the authority they 'should have.' As a result, they render themselves ineffectual."  These are the stone cutters.  Even if the goal is a cathedral, and all they've produced is a pile of mis-cut rocks, these people may think they've done a "good job."  But they haven't been effective in a way that matters.

Conversely, Drucker says, the effective executive, instead, aims beyond himself by focusing on contribution. This requires turning one’s attention away from "one’s own specialty, one’s own narrow skills, one’s own department,"  Drucker writes, "and toward the performance of the whole."

Ironically, the people who focus externally and on outward contribution, instead of internally and on what they "should have", are the ones who will become the most valuable, most rewarded and, frankly, most fulfilled. 

If I ran the mythical stone-cutting company, I would take note of the third stone cutter.  He'd be the one to be considered for promotion.

At BoldBrush one of our principles is to "Focus First and On Contribution."  And the story above illustrates what that means.


What does the cathedral that BoldBrush is building look like?  

Allow me to provide you with the plans of the cathedral we are building:

Boldbrush is a company that makes technology as a way to inspire and enable human artistic expression.

We believe that the artistic creativity of every person deserves to be recognized and celebrated.

We believe that making art improves lives.

We believe that marketing art improves lives.

We believe that both of the life of the artist and the life of the viewer are enriched by art.  

We believe that artistic and marketing mastery enables artists to live their dreams.

We believe in the magic of software.

We believe that life should be artful.

We believe that our job is to be an enabler of that through the magic of technology.

The problem we solve is enabling artists to make more by saving them time and effort.

The problem we solve is enabling them to market share and sell more art.

We only work with visual artists because we believe that intense focus in this area is necessary to provide truly enabling innovations for artists.

In short, we empower artists to create and sell and therefore, to inspire the world.

That's the cathedral  we're building, I hope it's a cathedral that inspires you.

If you're a cathedral builder instead of a stone cutter, and  if you're a senior software developer or interested in working with our support team, we'd love for you to consider building this cathedral with us.

Learn how at the link below:

https://jobs.recooty.com/boldbrush