Get Rich or Get Real

"We are told to 'do what we love' in life and our careers. Is that a fallacy?" the Guardian asks in an article I came across this week-  a question aimed at those aspiring to Steve Jobs's 'don't settle' motto while at the same time faced with real-life economic struggles and realities.

It's an ever present question, a tug of war not just for young people, but for those unsatisfied and unmotivated in the jobs they find themselves in, those who know that they’re not doing what they love, but have responsibilities that outweighs the possibility of change.

"DWYL (Do What You Love) is a secret handshake of the privileged... According to this way of thinking, labour is not something one does for compensation but is an act of love. If profit doesn't happen to follow, presumably it is because the worker's passion and determination were insufficient. Its real achievement is making workers believe their labor serves the self and not the marketplace."

What does this leave us with- get rich or get real? I disagree. If you teach people to believe men like Steve Jobs are the exception to the rule, that their success is due to privilege, then you will fail before you start. Or worse- you will never try. No doubt the majority of us have or have had jobs that were taken out of need rather than love, to pay the bills rather than the passion for the daily tasks- my god I've cleaned toilets and sold dodgy timeshares in the Costa Del Crime along the way-  but should we accept that as inevitable?  That you don't get the choice, or the chance to change your mind along the way?

It's because we're measuring this quote in terms of his wealth- not his success. Success is that he found what he liked doing, did it well, built a company and family that he believed in, didn't give up despite obstacles, had something to show for his efforts and beliefs. This is the value- the net worth is the bonus.

The root of our attitudes has much to do with our education system, structuring beliefs about how the world around us works and rewards us. From a young age you have an intrinsic understanding about which subjects at school have value, and which subjects are worthless in the 'real' world, the worth based on what career path it is attributed to, which box it fits into.

"People like Apple's Steve Jobs and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg were held up as examples (if not gurus) of this "DWYL" trend, alongside people who quit investment banking jobs to become cheese farmers, plumbers or yoga entrepreneurs"

I left my job in London to study, write novels, learn to surf and live by the sea with my little red kayak. The world didn't end, my parents didn't disown me. But if my novel is never published, and I never 'make it,' if I return to London when I'm ready, am I to believe that it was foolish to follow what I love in my educational choices and career decisions? Do I not get to choose what I do with my working life, whatever my C.V ends up looking like? 

The comments on the Guardian article left by the public were insightful- hinting at what has become a natural position when we come to talk about success and jobs and money:

"I am advising my children to think about the lifestyle they want, and work back from there to a job that will afford that lifestyle and a university education that will allow it. "

This, surely, is the wrong way round, but is a very true picture about ever-present teachings on how to live a happy and successful life. 'Lifestyle' is the accolade that you slave for, to enjoy at the weekends and on bank holiday's.

"In Steve Jobs' Stanford commencement speech he urged graduates, "don't settle". Keep searching for the thing that you love doing. It was a great speech, but I know several people who have used it as an excuse for a continual search. I have a graduate relative who is fast approaching thirty, and has never been in a job for more than three months, because they haven't found that thing that they love. It's supposed to be a finite search. If you haven't found it in a two or three years, then find something you can force yourself to love."

Life, I would argue, is a continual search; what else are you doing? You will never arrive at who you are and what you want to do one spring afternoon. Your passions and flavours change and develop as you do, and a rich and fruitful life involves giving yourself permission to explore those interests. If you have to force it, it don't fit.

Who said you have to have one job or one career for the duration anyway? You're going to be at work everyday, 5 days a week for about 40 years. That's a lot of time to work out what your good at, to change your mind about what you like doing. It all depends how you value success- by the measure of your own satisfaction and happiness, or by the milestones pressed upon us- house deposits, titles, car finance, holiday to Vegas. 

I'm not suggesting we all quit our jobs and go take photographs of sunflowers in a field, but the question being pressed against lost graduates, university hopefuls and people that are bored or unsatisfied in the their current jobs leaves a bitter taste; are your passions and talents irrelevant when it comes to the working world? Is following your dream a luxury that we all eventually must forfeit?

@melodys_pen

Like this? Read about the Forbes list top Ten Happiest Jobs and Top Ten most miserable jobs here 

Here is the original guardian article.