A plaque remaining from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem.

Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.

Recent entries:
“Shoutout to ATM fees for making me buy my own money” (3/27)
“Thank you, ATM fees, for allowing me to buy my own money” (3/27)
“Anyone else boil the kettle twice? Just in case the boiling water has gone cold…” (3/27)
“Shout out to ATM fees for making me buy my own money” (3/27)
20-20-20 Rule (for eyes) (3/27)
More new entries...

A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z


Entry from May 20, 2012
“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life”

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life” is a popular saying meaning that if you love what you’re doing, then it isn’t work.
 
“Find something you love to do, and you’ll never have to work a day in your life” was said by the bestselling business author Harvey Mackay in 1989. Mackay is often credited with the saying that he frequently uses, but it’s cited in print before Mackay’s first book, Swim With the Sharks (Without Being Eaten Alive) (1988).
 
The saying has been credited to the Chinese philosopher Confucius (551 B.C. – 479 B.C.), but none of his writings closely resembles the saying.  “Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life” was said to be an “Oriental proverb” in a 1985 book. The popular book, A Father’s Book of Wisdom (1988) by H. Jackson Brown, credited Confucius for the saying.
 
   
Wikipedia: Harvey Mackay
Harvey Mackay (born 1932 in Saint Paul, Minnesota) is a businessman and columnist. Mackay is perhaps best known as the author of five business bestsellers, including Swim With the Sharks (Without Being Eaten Alive), Beware the Naked Man Who Offers You His Shirt and Dig Your Well Before You’re Thirsty. He is a nationally syndicated columnist, and one of America’s most popular business speakers. He is also founder, Chairman and CEO of Mackay Envelope Corporation, whose story he tells in anecdotes sprinkled throughout his books.
   
Google Books
How to Start, Expand & Sell a Business:
The complete guidebook for entrepreneurs

By James C. Comiskey
San Jose, CA: Venture Perspectives Press
1987, ©1985
Pg. 25:
As an Oriental proverb quite aptly states, “Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.”
 
Google Books
A Father’s Book of Wisdom
By H. Jackson Brown
Nashville, TN: Rutledge Hill Press
1988
Pg. 136:
Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.—Confucius
   
Google Books
20 February 1989, Jet magazine, pg. 31, col. 1:
“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life,” Confucius once said.
 
4 May 1989, The Stars and Stripes (Darmstadt, Hesse, Germany), pg. 12, cols. 2-4:
Mackay writes again
Businessman Harvey Mackay, of Minneapolis whose first book, “Swim WIth the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive,” sold more than 1 million copies, says he enjoys the water so much he’s diving in again.
(...)
“I don’t believe in age,” he said. “Find something you love to do, and you’ll never have to work a day in your life. You find people like that at any age level. Age doesn’t limit people one-tenth of 1 percent.”
 
20 May 1990, Cedar Rapids (IA) Gazette, advertising supplement, pg. 18, col. 1 (bottom scrawl below an advertisement):
Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.
 
4 July 1990, Wisconsin State Journal (Madison, WI), Neighbors, pg. 1, col. 1:
FAMOUS LAST LINE
“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”—Confucius (551-479 B.C.).
 
23 August 1991, Lethbridge (Alberta) Herald, pg. 26, col. 1:
It’s My Paper Too!
KEVIN KOOY
Photographer
If your job is something you enjoy, you never have to work a day in your life.
 
1 January 1992, Syracuse (NY) Herald-Journal, “Molloy coach Curran likes scholastic niche” by David Ramsay, pg. C2, col. 7:
“You know,” Curran said, “there’s a Confucius saying—not that I’m a fan of his but I like this. It goes, ‘If you choose a job that you enjoy you will never work a day in your life.’ If my mother was alive, she’d be asking me, ‘Jack, when are you going to get a job and go to work?’”
(Jack Curran, basketball coach at Queens’ Archbishop Molloy High School—ed.)
   
Google Books
Care Packages for the Workplace:
Little things you can do to regenerate spirit at work

By Barbara A. Glanz
New York, NY: McGraw-Hill
1996
Pg. 190:
Find something that you love to do and you’ll never have to work a day in your life!
HARVEY MACKAY
 
Google Books
Treasury of Spiritual Wisdom:
A Collection of 10,000 Inspirational Quotations

By Andy Zubko
San Diego, CA: Blue Dove Press
2000
Pg. 502:
If you choose a job that you like you will never have to work a day in your life…. — Confucius
 
Google Books
Ready, Aim, Inspire!:
101 Quotes on Leadership & Teamwork

By Jim Walker
San Jose, CA: Writers Club Press
2002
Pg. 63:
Find something you love to do and you’ll never have to work a day in your life. —Harvey Mackay
 
Google Books
The Mackay MBA of Selling in the Real World
By Harvey Mackay
New York, NY: Portfolio/Penguin
2011
Pg. ?:
Love what you do. And you’ll never have to work a day in your life. That’s the subtitle of one of my books. Enthusiasm and the love of what you’re doing are necessary to put in all the effort we’ve discussed. When you’re in the zone, you’re unstoppable.

Posted by Barry Popik
New York CityWork/Businesses • Sunday, May 20, 2012 • Permalink


Commenting is not available in this channel entry.