Career and life lessons from meatloaf

We all know that Meat Loaf (the popular singer) can offer many life, career, and managment lessons.

But so does meatloaf, the iconic midwestern weeknight entré!

Meat Loaf’s lessons to ambitious workers are well known

• Two out of three ain’t bad
• If you love someone, do anything, but respect your limits
• You can sometimes see paradise, but it may not ultimately be worth attaining
• You should really love that rock-n-roll
• many more, even some not for white collar workers

On to meatloaf.

Meatloaf is made primarily from ground beef. Ground beef started as a budget substitute for more expensive cuts, manufactured by grinding together scraps from those more expensive cuts, and suet (beef fat) into a slurry. Most of us aren’t “ninjas” or “wizards”, or even filet. We’re scraps and trimmings. Meatloaf shows that trimmings, scraps and offal can be mixed in proportion to attain great success.

Meatloaf does not have “secret ingredients”. Meatloaf is a mixture of meat grindings, breadcrumbs or crushed crackers, eggs, and spices or other flavorings. Nothing is hard to get, and most kitchens have all ingredients on hand. Meatloaf doesn’t depend on ultra-fresh, “gourmet” or prima-donna ingredients. You don’t have to have original ideas, or be the smartest person in the room to be popular and in-demand.

Meatloaf is of uniform construction inside, but it has a protective crust, or at least a layer of sauce. Sometimes it’s wrapped in bacon. This reminds us that we have to set boundaries in our lives, and in our work.

Meatloaf goes in and out of fashion. It has attained iconic status in more recent years, but years past, it’s often scorned and made the butt of jokes. Meatloaf is still here to let us know that careers aren’t necessarily a straight line to success. We all have ups and downs.

Not everyone loves meatloaf. You can’t please all your direct reports, or all of your own managers. You can’t meet every one of the whole set of conflicting requirements. Some balance or resolution of tension is necessary.

Meatloaf does not have mandatory/traditional side dishes. as hamburger sandwiches demand french fried potatoes. A savory and nutritious career can come out of anywhere, there’s no standard sides with meatloaf, and career moves can be anything, really.

Image Attribution

Image by Wolfgang Eckert from Pixabay