A few months ago, my wife and I had our annual holiday dinner at a very nice restaurant in town. We make our reservations early every year, because it is the kind of place that fills up very quickly. It’s expensive, but we budget for it and it has become something of a Christmas tradition.

As we waited at the bar for our table, a much older gentleman and his wife walked in. I recognized him immediately. Fifteen years ago, he was the head of one of the largest manufacturing companies in the world. I did some checking, and at the time of his retirement, he had literally tens of thousands of employees, budgets in the billions, factories and offices in dozens of countries, and his retirement was noted by press as a major event.

Now here he was, at the same bar as I was, waiting with his wife for a table on a crisp winter night, just like me.

What struck me most was how, in the long run, everything he had done for his career had faded into the background until it was just a trivia question. What mattered to him now were simple conversations with his wife, a dinner at a nice restaurant every now and then, and a warm bed to go to when the night was over.

A lot of people put a heavy focus on achieving so much at the office. I certainly don’t want to fault this gentleman’s efforts and lasting achievements – he did a lot. But the company he invested so much time in has now moved on without him. They are no doubt somewhat better for his leadership, but at best, his portrait is in a conference room somewhere and the new employees hear his name as part of the orientation lecture.

When setting our priorities, we need to remember to put our focus on the things that have permanence, and be less driven by the fleeting urgent activities. We all know people who put their job as their number one priority, picked a big car or house over a big family, decided an extra hour at the office was more important than an extra hour with friends.

But when it comes time to actually sit back and enjoy all those perks we fought so hard for, we have to make sure we have the people we want around us to share them with.

(Photo Credit – nicootje)