Steve Jobs said:
“Many people find what they believe to be safe harbors (lawyers and accountants), only to wake up ten or fifteen years later and discover the price they paid.”
“The journey is the reward. People think that you’ve made it when you’ve gotten to the end of the rainbow and got the pot of gold. But they’re wrong. . . . Think of your life as a rainbow arching across the horizon of this world. You appear, have a chance to blaze in the sky, then you disappear.”
Do you agree with this?
Work is a vehicle — to pay the bills, actualize your skills, provide a seed for wealth building, soothe the pressure and avoid the emotions you don’t want to face (e.g., guilt of not being enough), pursue your real interests (someday!), substitute a personal purpose that’s been lost to time.
Sometimes you get to use your skills in a fulfilling way. Sometimes your soul is up for bargain.
I get mad at myself when I think of the times I answered work emails while on a trip in Maui while walking in a lush forest, and in the dark at 1 AM on my first night there. I wanted to impress the new partner I was working with. I get mad when I think of the times I opened my laptop to answer business emails from strangers, when I should have been enjoying my time with the people I care about.
I ended up neglecting the people who are there for me, in service of others who are ultimately not. That’s what a career or a business essentially makes you do if you don’t draw boundaries.
However, work is still necessary.
Is it possible to “make what you love your work” as Steve Jobs prescribes? Or is it a flowery sentiment that is only possible in hindsight?
How do you have a career without being a career?
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