While reading the newspapers, I sometimes come across news of rich Kenyans who are appointed to senior government positions. And they seem to relish the appointments even though they have enough wealth to live comfortably in their homes. That tells us there is more to life than having money. We need work to occupy our time.

I think that's why some American politicians of a bygone era emphasized the importance of work. Abraham Lincoln believed that a dollar earned is better than a dollar found. He advised his son that it is far more honorable to fail than to cheat.

Another American politician is quoted to have said that he had no respect for people who didn't work, no matter how rich they were. And another American politician valued excellence to an extent of not allowing his sons to come home with poor school report forms.

I wonder if American leaders of these days hold such high ideals. In his best-selling book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen R. Covey reported that he had studied success literature written since America was founded and noted a shift in focus by writers from a character-based living to a personality-based one.

According to Covey, the success literature written in the first 150 years since America was founded emphasized the need for such virtues as industry, integrity, humility, courage and patience as the foundation of lasting success. But in the 20th century, self-help writers started telling readers all they needed to achieve success was dream big, smile more and have a positive mental attitude.

With such a change in focus from character-based living to a personality-based one by self-help writers in America, it seems American citizens of these days don't value work as much as Americans of past ages did. Little wonder that there has been a prevalence of obesity and other lifestyle diseases in America for the last 50 years.

I personally admire people who work. A few years ago when I was striving to transform myself from a lazy bum to a hard-working writer and musician, I would underline every sentence about work in the books I read. I even highlighted in my Oxford dictionary the word "work" and its meaning.

So much have I come to value work that when I am walking on the streets, I admire labourers busy at work. Such labourers as workers welding doors, men digging trenches for laying pipes, ordinary citizens hammering rocks to pieces and masons carrying bricks for building houses.

Just last Sunday as I was taking a walk in my hometown of Kiserian in the evening, I passed by a bevy of workers in dusty clothes constructing a building. Mark you, it was a Sunday evening and the workers were as busy as a swarm of bees. I was so impressed with their diligence that I paused to admire them at work.

Then on Tuesday last week, I woke up at 5.30am only to find there was no electricity at home. That meant I couldn't use my laptop to proofread the blog story I had purposed to write that day. (My laptop battery conked out two years ago.) I had to use my smartphone to type, edit and upload the story to this blog.

By the time I was done with sharing my story on social media, my smartphone battery power was down to 39%. So I became a bit worried about whether my smartphone would have enough charge for checking my social media accounts in the evening if the power outage persisted. You can therefore imagine my delight when I saw the bulb of our kitchen light up at around 12.30pm on that Tuesday. I was really delighted to see power return to our home.

Seeing electricity come back home at an hour I needed it most made me appreciate the work people at Kenya Power Company do to ensure we have our share of electrical energy. It also made me feel guilty about the times I have overslept while my fellow citizens were busy at work. I have therefore resolved to keep working hard at becoming a great writer and musician.

My beloved reader, I urge you to also value work because, as the saying goes, an idle mind is a devil's workshop. Work not only occupies our time, it saves us from vice and need. It also makes our lives meaningful. Even in heaven where there is no suffering, people engage in work. So value work and be diligent at whatever you do. That's all I am saying.

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RECOMMENDATION: If you've enjoyed the above story on the importance of work, you might also enjoy another one on "The Dignity of Labour" which I wrote about two years ago. Just click on that link in blue to dive straight into the story.