to be done) that you are good at doing. And what a joy that is! For many years I thought this was the pinnacle of working wisdom. What could be more heavenly than to spend your energies only on those tasks you were both good at AND loved? But recently it began to dawn on me that there is yet another stage beyond doing things well and with love. It began with my experience as an editor of magazines. A large part of the editor's job is getting other people to complete stories based on ideas the editor (me) had. So I got used to handing over good ideas. But while I could assign most good ideas, every once in a while I'd get a great idea that I simply could not sell. So I'd let it die. But a few of those left to die would resurrect themselves so I would try again to give it away. Some got picked up but a few would simply get no assignment and retreat. A number of these ideas might go through this cycle a dozen times, until at the end I would face it: Here was an idea so good that I could not kill it, yet no one else wanted it. It took me several times to realize that this was a signal. It said, "This is the one you have to do." These stories woud become the best ones I ever wrote. That's because they were the stories no