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 Volume 8, No. 6 |
June 19 , 2009 |
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Have you ever watched a movie you really liked for the third or fourth time and all of a sudden seen something there you never saw before? It happened to me the other night watching The Insider. On previous viewings, I’d been so caught up in the drama I didn’t realize that The Insider is really about a man in a career transition—abrupt and brutal, to be sure, but also transformational.
The Insider is based on true incidents in the life of a Ph.D. chemist named Jeffrey Wigand who worked as vice-president of R&D for Brown & Williamson tobacco company and was fired by them because he knew that the company was adding carcinogenic substances to the nicotine in their cigarettes. The action of the film is driven by Wigand’s decision to go public with first-hand knowledge of how the tobacco industry uses chemical compounds to promote addiction. How far will Big Tobacco go to shut him up? Will this bright, responsible, somewhat confused, man be able to hold up under intimidation by his former employer, on the one hand, and, on the other, pressure from a 60 Minutes producer to blow the whistle by doing an interview on national television? When we first meet Wigand he is packing up his files and leaving the corporate headquarters of the company who has just let him go. As the story unfolds, we witness his whole world being turned upside down as his financial well-being and the safety of his family are threatened. The same is happening to many people right now, not with an email death threat or a bullet in the mailbox, as it did for Wigand, but with the less dramatic kind of despair that comes from seeing a stack of bills they can’t pay. What is so powerful about Russell Crowe’s performance as Wigand is that we experience through him what it feels like to be a man who has hit the wall professionally and is desperately trying to find himself. And he does. During the course of the film, he takes a job teaching high school, and, by the end, we learn that he has been named Teacher of the Year. He is able to recreate himself by executing a successful transition, and we are left with the sense that he finds teaching far more satisfying than being a tobacco company executive. If such a happy ending could happen under the harrowing circumstances portrayed in the movie, maybe there are clues there for others who find themselves in the chaos and fear of a painful ending. In transition: Seek a return to your authentic self It is clear from the deep sadness we see in him as he talks about losing his way as a scientist, using his talents to promote addiction, not health, that an authentic connection to his work had left him long before he was force leave it. Being fired frees him to reclaim what he has lost, and as the story progresses we see him begin to shape a new vision of his work life at the same time he is experiencing loss. “Can you imagine me coming home from some job feeling good at the end of the day,” he says to his wife as they downsize. Expect valleys of despair As Wigand begins to verbalize the anguish he felt while working for the tobacco company, he starts the process of sorting through the conflict within him caused by his decision to leave the scientific community to work in an aggressive sales culture. His awareness that he has traded off something very important to him for a high-paying job becomes a gravitational pull back to his core values, even while all hell is breaking loose around him. It is also worth noting that throughout the film it is in the moments after scenes of personal anguish where we see him reclaim his voice and his priorities. Watch for moments of courage Two scenes in particular come to mind. The first takes place in a noisy high school cafeteria, a stark contrast to the world he formerly inhabited, where we watch the very overqualified Dr. Wigand talk the principal into hiring him as a chemistry teacher. He presents himself authentically (“I believe I can be a good teacher”) and neither minimizes nor apologizes for his credentials. He is real in the moment and gets the job. In the second scene he is in a lab surrounded by high school students. “How many of you have taken chemistry before?” he asks, and when no hands go up, he wins them over by saying, “Well, I’ve never taught it before, so we’re going to be fine.” He gives them a vision of chemistry as something “magical” which comes from his own passion for the subject, and what we as viewers witness is also magical—a man coming home to himself. In personal challenges, it takes real vigilance to acknowledge there are things we are doing that are heroic. Our own sense of panic causes us to discount the courageous actions we take, especially if they do not produce immediate results. Anything you do that requires digging a little deeper into yourself, whether it’s to make a phone call or sign up for a course, is courageous. Real bravery comes from doing these things without yet being able to see how they may come together as stepping stones to a new beginning.
Readers Write
Business Owner, Dennis, MA
To thrive in the 21st century, Daniel Pink says, “We must perform work that overseas knowledge workers can’t do cheaper, that computers can’t do faster, and that satisfies the aesthetic, emotional and spiritual demands of prosperous times.” Hear, Hear! That is just what I do for a living. I touch people in the emotional side to help them perform better at the jobs. This past week I presented a program on conflict resolution to 55 healthcare professionals with a good number of participants being administrators of nursing homes. My information is practical, no-nonsense and touches the core of what they do—help people. The feedback from the program was very positive. I think with all the negative press and anxiety floating out there in the media, people are starving for their emotional sides to be fed. Thank you for this affirmation that what I'm doing is the right thing. After reading your newsletter I was also affirmed that the old way of doing business—cold calling and hoping for the phone to ring—is not the way to find work. Thanks for the inspiration. Speaker/Trainer, Bethel, CT
What a great idea that architect has! And I love the suggestions about writing and journaling. It's always helpful to be reminded of that tool. Therapist, Chatham, MA
PO Box 156, 40 Oak Leaf Rd
Our long-term relationships with clients, recognition by peers, and growing reputation as a community resource speak to the excellence of the services we provide and our commitment to making the world of work a better place for all. Stick illustrations by Eloise Morley. Copyright © 2009 |
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As in marriage, the great questions that touch on personal happiness in work have to do with an ability to hold our own conversation amid the constant background of shouted needs, hectoring advice, and received wisdom. In work we have to find a high ground safe from the arriving tsunami or expectations concerning what I am going to do. Work, like marriage, is a place where you can lose yourself more easily perhaps than find yourself. It is a place full of powerful undercurrents, a place to find ourselves, but also, a place to drown, losing all sense of our own voice, our own contribution and conversation. The other interesting thing about a work life is how different it is from a workday. The tasks we face on a given day are often around specific actions, or specific conversations we need to undertake. The tasks we face in pursuing a work life more often have to do with intangibles, with what cannot yet be touched or spoken. In a good workday you are more often than not trying to make other people happy; in a good work life you are trying to make yourself happy. All paths to authenticity lead through the door of humiliation.
The Three Marriages
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Another fantastic article! As a right brain girl I’m glad to hear we are moving into a conceptual age. As another resource, I’ve used the tools from a program called 
