When I was younger I said I’d tell my kids to pick a career that best met the following criteria:
- Something you’re good at
- Something you enjoy
- Makes great money
I did that. I’m good at math. I enjoy working alone and solving problems. I liked engineering, that made good money. I did it. I chose engineering and guess what I liked it! For about 7 years……then I got that itch.
Yup, the seven year itch. I realized that though I still liked engineering, there were other things I liked more and there are other things I’m good at and (gulp) the money just doesn’t make it worth it anymore. That’s when I decided to rethink my own advice.
I no longer like working alone. I like interacting with people. I’m great at finding resources. I’m still fantastic at solving problems. So……. I and my staff interact with people to help them find resources to solve their small business problems. AND I LOVE IT!
Now my advice to my kids will be:
- Figure out you love to do!
- Become great at it.
- Do it!
- If you love it, the money won’t matter anymore. And if your great at it. The money will come.
- Once you don’t like it anymore…..do something else.
I think the same advice applies to anyone choosing a second career. Here’s another blog post gives a similar viewpoint.
What will your advice be?
March 10th, 2008 at 1:21 am
I found your site on google blog search and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. Just added your RSS feed to my feed reader. Look forward to reading more from you.
- Randy Nichols.