OK, here is something I have thought about that I think needs to be said:
you don't have to love your
job to be successful. Maybe this is stating the obvious for some readers, and for them I encourage you to quit reading right now. However, in this day and age of Millennial thinking - I think too many college graduates are coming out of school thinking they have to love their job or decline offers and stay living with their parents because it wouldn't
be true to themselves.
The Millenial thinking in today's workforce seems to believe that if you aren't truly happy in what you do - you are better off doing nothing. It stems from the root idea that being miserable at a job is merely existing and not truly living for all that you were meant to become. I see some truth in this, but I don't think it tells the whole picture. Movies seems to glamorize this concept. From Tom Hanks in the movie
Big where he gets this dream job of designing toys and of course is naturally successful, to many other movies Hollywood seems to love to sell this idea that you have to truly love your job to amount to anything in the workforce.
WRONG. HOGWASH. CRAZY.
The truth of the matter is that if you don't work in a hostile workforce, and you are good at what you do - you have a good chance of being successful even if it isn't your favorite thing to do in the whole world. Sure, we all would love to take our hobbies - be it chess, surfing, mountain biking, movies, reading novels or what have you and do that for a living. How many of us could honestly make a solid living doing it? I will be the first to raise my hand that as much as I love to mountain bike, go running, and play chess none of these hobbies are going to pay my bills at the end of the month. So then comes the question -
what can I do reasonably well that will help me pay my bills and give me extra time for the hobbies I want to do on the side?
Once you have a solid answer to this question you may have found your future career.
It seems many young men and women don't agree today. Many guys seem to leave college and think
that they are being insulted taking a job that doesn't pay the 6 figures they deserve (right out of college no less) doing things like video game design that they do anyway for over 20 hours a week. This is merely immature thinking. Yes, you may get a great job working in video game design and feel like your main job is so fun you can hardly believe they pay you. However, I would venture to guess that 80-90% of the American workforce is not doing that. If you have a dream job right out of school - good for you! I wish you more success and happiness doing it, but for the 80-90% of people who feel that they wake up and have to work the job they have to "pay the bills" - I don't think you are necessarily missing out on a good career. There is an aspect of working hard so you can have a good weekend that many unemployed college graduates may want to think about. Yes, it may mean starting off at a lower salary than you were hoping for. Yes, it may mean long hours doing things that aren't as fun as your spare time in college allowed you to enjoy. But hey - you are making a living and you can save for retirement - two admirable things that shouldn't be discounted when compared to eating Twinkies and living in your parent's basement because no one would pay you what you are worth. I think loving what you do is a great thing - but it shouldn't be placed at the level that current entry level college grads are placing it. Working hard and seeking to make the most of the opportunities you have been given can enable you to transform a simple job position into an opportunity for growth and wealth in your personal life. No job is going to fulfill you completely. Why waste time holding out for one that will?
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