By:
Elijah Peterson
How
often have you thought about what you love to do versus what you are
currently doing? How many people do you personally know, that love
and enjoy their careers/jobs? Even more importantly, how often would
you guess that a person chooses money over passion?
As a graduating senior, I often
think back to my freshman year when I had to make the important
decision of choosing my major. While the decision was not tough for
me personally, it was obvious that a great number of my classmates
struggled throughout this process. To follow their passion and major
in a subject that would possibly lead to success and happiness in a
field of their hobby, or to succumb to societal, cultural and
personal pressure and major in a field that would yield wealth,
exclusive of joy?
The attractiveness of wealth and the alarming idea
of falling short of society’s definition of success, often leads to
the pursuit of wealth on a trip down one of the paths that society
has designated for future success. Countries and citizens beyond the
United States have conceptualized the idea of an “American Dream”.
Besides the white picket fence and the perfect family, the foundation
of the American Dream is wealth [seemingly] equals happiness.
According to the Dream, the more money one has the more happiness
they are supposed to be. In a country where the people move fast and
work harder than for example, Spaniards, Americans are constantly on
the prowl for wealth. Americans spend so much time working and trying
to acquire wealth that they rarely have the opportunity to do what
they love. During my recent trip to Spain, I quickly came to realize
that Spaniards enjoy living life and participating in activities with
the people closest to them. An hour long “siesta” in the middle
of work hours would never be common in America, simply because
Americans are working hard each and every day to acquire wealth and
live out the American Dream.
While
most of us are guilty of working to obtain the American Dream,
curious minds wonder, what happens when we stop trying to live out
the American Dream and instead, live out our own dream?. The video
entitled “This Video
Will Change Your Life”,
brought up a great point; when you focus your time and energy on the
interest or hobby that you love, it is much easier to build a career
around it and yield future success. A passionate professor creates
great lesson plans and learning techniques that students benefit
from. A professor who teaches solely for money, does a disservice to
students. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs had passions for technology and
as a result, led the world’s technological revolution. Steve Jobs,
who was actually fired from the very company he created, did not let
his colleagues or society, dictate what he would do with his life.
Upon being fired, Jobs explored other interests but his talent and
his passion led him back to Apple.
Your
talent and your passion will always lead you back to what you love to
do; the question is, will you stay or will you turn away? Whether
your passion is Finance, English, Music etc., to do what you love and
to do it to the best of your ability, is to be successful and truly
happy. Dare to be different, do what you love, be good at what you
love and enjoy life. You have one life to live; live it to the
fullest.
Great read, I do find it to be true. Us, Americans, work hard for working sake. We work to accumulate wealth to enjoy the finer things in life. But if our world did not revolve around capitalism, we would be out there pursuing our dreams. The same dreams we normally put off because they are not deemed as profitable.
ReplyDeleteThis blog is beautifully written!! And it's true. America is so different than other countries, like Spain and Italy. In Italy, people just take the afternoon off sometimes; they know how to live there.
ReplyDeleteI wish America was the same. I don't think America will ever be this way. This is the way of life in America. It really is about the money. If you don't have money, you and your family struggles.
My suggestion is that people work hard for the money, so hard that they eventually will have "their money making them money." It is then, that people will be able to enjoy life, and do what they really desire.
I have included a link of some lyrics that encourages people to make money--because they will need it in America!
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/macklemore/makethemoney.html
Wonderfully stated. It is always better to live your life with some substance than to completely consume yourself with the greed of money. I also agree with the first commenter as well though. Many of the problems individuals face with solely doing towards the things that they like is that many of the people are consumed by the love of money and eventually end up letting it control them. Others might say that what they love, does not beget the lifestyle that they want to live as well. A teacher cannot live the same life as a banker, but the fulfillment may be different. Definitely an interesting topic, got me thinking about a couple things myself.
ReplyDeleteThis was a great blog an I enjoyed every point you made. I believe finding my specific passion in life is more important than money. Many people try each day to achieve wealth in any way possible and overtime is not happy about what him/her is doing in life. I use to only want to be in a specific field for the money, but I realize I wasn't happy and moving forward in my life I tried to only follow my passion. The Lord has put each person on earth for a specific reason, and once that person find there reason him/her would be better off. Overall, this was a great blog and I took a lot away from it. Great Job!!!
ReplyDeleteThis video is always inspirational. I think some people will find this idea of finding your passion and choosing it over being paid well a little difficult to grasp. It's all about how much you are willing to sacrifice for what you truly want. In the end, I think people will be happier doing what their passion rather than something that pays well. It's that idea that you can have a job that you go to..or you can have a career that you can't help but be enthusiastic about every morning. My major is definitely different from my passion, but what I learned from my advisor is that sometimes a good major, and a few years doing what you DON'T love will give you the credibility to go into your passion and create change.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog entry. This is really true and something I think a lot of people struggle with, including myself at one point of time. I originally was a computer science major because I knew that I was somewhat decent with computers and I knew they made a lot of money. Freshman year my grades where really bad and I didn't enjoy any of the computer science classes. Through talking to my roommate and seeing that he was going into a major because of something that he loved to do, I decided to really think about what I loved and was good at at the same time. That when I really realized how much I was into music, specifically the music industry. Through the genre of hip hop, R&B, and pop I could tell you artists chart history and their discographies amongst others things. I would always think that when I an artist would release an album, what songs should be released that I thought would be the most successful and why; or when an artist song/album didn't do well I could figure out what that artist/record label did wrong.
ReplyDeleteWith that being said I decided that I would change my major to Business Administration with a concentration and management to have the dreams of one day being a A&R executive at a top (or even possible my own) record label.
Robert Kinney
This is a great post and I really like the video. This is something much needed while we are approaching the end of the semester. I agree with what Mr. Pierre Exy stated in his response to your post. Like Exy, I Believe that the way America is structured, you really don't have a chance to enjoy life without money, because it is the money that buys things we like or allows us to do what we desire(such as open a business related to something we really like to do) it is needed.
ReplyDeleteThis post ecompasses a great message and I agree with everyone that has responded above. Lots of times individuals choose their life path because of money. Money is nice, but it isn't the most important thing. Money is good when buying the essentials and few desirables but it should never become something that frames your entire life. I've heard lots of stories where people learn that way too late in life. Enjoy life, find ways to enjoy life and do it often. Otherwise, what was the point in living?
ReplyDeleteI definitely went through this process as well. Finally choosing to major in business because it is a compromise. I think nowadays we don't have to make the choice, like you could do something to get the money but make that plan b and pursue your passion. One of my mentors majored in accounting but is now a producer, but the knowledge from accounting allows him to be more marketable as a producer because he can better negotiate his contracts
ReplyDelete