What Charlie taught about work

Charlie's advice about work was not complicated, and he did not dress it up. Asked what a young person should do to succeed, he began with character, not strategy: strive to be a better person every single day, because your character is a reflection of your soul. He did not promise a shortcut. He told young people to build the person first, and the work would follow from who they had become.

Then he said what many people would rather not hear. If you want to succeed, you have to be willing to keep pushing on and enduring when things get really, really tough. Effort is not exciting, but it is what separates the people who finish from the people who only start.

He had no patience for complaining. Don't get into the whole habit, he told them, of saying that everything around me is terrible and awful. Instead, believe that your actions matter, apply yourself, and work harder every single day. And after a decade of that, he said, you will be in a pretty good place.

He put the same idea in one sentence to students: before you ever demand anything from others, you must demand excellence from yourself. That puts the work on your side of the table. It is a standard you can start meeting this morning without anyone's permission. Hard work is not only about getting ahead. It is about becoming someone whose word and effort can be counted on.

Paul gave the Christian reason for it: whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord. Seen that way, ordinary work becomes worship. You show up and give it everything because the one you are working for is bigger than your boss.