What do you want to do when you grow up?

[Tien]

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What do you want to do when you grow up?
I got asked that question constantly when I was a kid, and I always gave some half-assed answer. Oddly, I never sat down and tried to figure out for myself what I actually wanted to do. I'm not sure that it occurred to me that I'd have to decide. Careers were one of those things that just happened to you as you got older; like wrinkles, gray hair, and watching golf on TV.

So now I am grown up and I still don't know what I want to do. I'm halfway through my working life and still can't decide. I've had all sorts of jobs, many of which I did quite well, but none of them felt like a "calling" or whatever the hell I'm supposed to feel. So I have some questions.

1) What did you want to do when you grew up?
2) Did you actively decide upon a career?
3) If so, is that the career you now have?
4) Do you have some "dream job" that you'd love to pursue but have not?
5) How old is too old to start a career from scratch?
6) Why won't Jessica Alba return my calls?

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1) When I grew up I didn't have a clue what I wanted to do.
2) I never decided on a "career". I hate careers. I decided to learn how to start my own businesses.
3) I don't call it a career. I call it a life long journey. I have a real estate investing business.
4) I created my own dream job and I do it everyday.
5) It's never too late to do what you want to do in life.


I find it pretty ludricrous that people have to grow up and find a dream "job". As if you think life will somehow hand deliver you a "perfect" job that you love.


You have to figure out what you enjoy doing in life and build a life AROUND THAT.

What I enjoy doing in life is building a real estate empire property by property as well as starting and building businesses in general. I built my entire life AROUND THAT.


Sitting around waiting for life to give you what you want is like sitting around waiting to die. Don't do it. Go out there, take time, find out what you want to do in life, and build your career around it.

[Tien]

Not planning your adult life out before you begin it is like not planning for a long term vacation. You will end up just wasting tons of time doing absolutely nothing.


All the successful happy business people I know have their entire lives planned out, some of them year by year. It isn't an easy task to do. Every day I see them progressing to newer levels of improvement, and everytime I look back 6 months, they are completely different in a positive way.


The more action you take in the direction that you are really passionate about going, the happier you will be.

[JaBlue]

I'll never grow up!

[adsman]

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"Most of the really interesting people that I know still don't know what they want to do with themselves."

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FYP.

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I didn't realise it was a famous quote. To whom is it attributed?

[Phat Mack]

I'm retired and I STILL don't know what I want to do when I grow up.

When I was a kid, I thought I'd go to college, pick a career, graduate with an appropriate degree, then do the same thing for the rest of my life.

Not even close. I've kept very few jobs/professions for more than 3-4 years--and some of those that I kept longer are among the few regrets I have of my life. (I have dropped vocations and picked them up again decades later.)

The lifelong career may have been the norm at one time, but I think those days are over. The world changes too fast. It's better to be flexible.

Some of the people who want a lifelong career are looking for security. They don't realize that there is no such thing as security. There is opportunity, but security is pretty much a self deception.

Stay informed and hold on to a library card and an internet connection. With those an an active mind, you can always find something to do.

jmo

[BigPoppa]

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"Most of the really interesting people that I know still don't know what they want to do with themselves."

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FYP.

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I didn't realise it was a famous quote. To whom is it attributed?

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He was probably thinking of this column by Mary Schmich which has been wrongly attributed to Kurt Vonnegut and actually got turned into a song.
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Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don't.



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[edtost]

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1) What did you want to do when you grew up?

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The answer to this would probably depend on how young I was when you asked, but architect was probably the dream that lasted the longest.

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2) Did you actively decide upon a career?

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The current goal is to make a bunch of money in the finance industry and then semi-retire to teach at the high school or college level. Not solely because I'm greedy and want to be rich (which I am and do), but because all of the really great teachers I had growing up had real-life experience outside education and had accomplished something with their lives, however trivial it might have been. I think finance presents a lot of interesting intellectual problems, and like it or not, money is the way that industry keeps score.

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3) If so, is that the career you now have?

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I just graduated from college and have a job at a hedge fund, so I guess I'm on the right track.

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4) Do you have some "dream job" that you'd love to pursue but have not?

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Being a golf course designer would be pretty sweet, but if it really ranked high enough for me to consider it a "dream job", I like to think I'd be doing something to make it happen.

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5) How old is too old to start a career from scratch?

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No idea.

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6) Why won't Jessica Alba return my calls?

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Have your people call her people and figure it out. You don't have people? No wonder she won't return your calls.

[Quicksilvre]

I want to have enough pain for two lifetimes and enough joy for three.

SHIP IT

[jfish]

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So if you become wealthy real soon you won't go to law school?
Do you want to be a professional poker player, or become wealthy enough not to have to play poker?

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i probably will go to law school to appease my parents, but will end up teaching instead. that would be my life dream.

edit: ill keep playing poker as long as it is worth my opportunity cost (which will likely be a long time). im 21 at the moment and i make more money (per hour) than my 51 year old dad who is a doctor.

[jfish]

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if money didnt matter i would be a writer or a teacher. but money does matter and there is ZERO chance i could live life not being wealthy. this isnt a brag or a complaint, its just who i am .

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this attitude is the saddest part of the american dream.

buddha say: the roots of suffering...

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you dont know my parents and how i grew up man. people have really really high expectations of me. it kind of sucks, but feeling sorry for myself wont help anything.