At President Kennedy’s 63rd news conference, on October 31st, 1963, he replied to a reporter’s straightforward political question with a classic Kennedy-esque, philosophical response:
QUESTION: Mr. President, just shortly after the Bay of Pigs I asked you how you liked being President, and as I remember, you said you liked it better before the event. Now you have had a chance to appraise your job, and why do you like it and why do you want to stay in office four more years?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I find the work rewarding. Whether I am going to stay, and what my intentions are, and all of the rest, it seems to me it is still a good many months away; but as far as the job of President goes, it is rewarding and I have given before to this group the definition of happiness of the Greeks, and I will define it again. It is full use of your powers along lines of excellence. I find, therefore, the Presidency provides some happiness.
I discovered this video of the press conference at the Kennedy Library in Boston. You can read the transcript and listen to the entire session here.
I was struck by the simple elegance of his phrasing: full use of your powers along the lines of excellence. It connected with the way I sometimes experienced fulfillment in my own life. There are multiple dimensions to happiness, but I liked the way he captured that particular sense of joy that I occasionally encountered in a professional context. There is a special sort of satisfaction derived from the successful exercise of hard-won skills.
There were many things I couldn’t do when I began my career, and over the years I made a lot of mistakes. I steadily grew as my confidence, wisdom, and my experience increased. Occasionally, I was able to focus the benefit of all those powers on a situation, and everything would fall into place. I would defuse a confrontation with an angry customer, or pull off some kind of creative marketing coup, or take a risky bet on an applicant who would become one of our stars.
How, and to what end, do you use your skills along the lines of excellence?