Choose your Career Wisely
Young people especially need to choose their career wisely. You will be making a considerable investment in terms of time and money in your initial education; here are a few issues to consider. You should choose a career that interests you. Having said that one has to ask the question will my choice provide a future living? As an example there are many more jobs for engineers than there are for History majors. Does my chosen career have a market value? Does my chosen path have a future? Will technology buggy whip my future?
Another consideration is time. Let us say you become a roofer when you are young. You make good money, are out in the open and fresh air. But as you get older this job gets harder to do from a physical point of view. Why not learn in your younger years the principles of business. Then when the physical job of a roofer becomes too hard on the body you can transition into a roofing business owner. This principle can be applied to many jobs.
A career really is just a hobby you’ve committed to exploring more deeply. You don’t need to make the perfect choice, since the enjoyment comes from the exploration, not the outcome. If you don’t enjoy the hobby, dump it and try something else. If you like the hobby, stick with it for a while.
If you focus on exploring what you enjoy, even if it’s just as a hobby, you may discover the following progression:
Enjoyment – If you do what you enjoy, you’ll tend to keep doing it. A fun hobby becomes a habit.
Skill – If you do it long enough, you’ll get good at it. A long-term habit becomes a skill.
Service – If you share your skill with others, you’ll provide value to them. A skill becomes a service.
Income – If you provide enough value to enough people, you’ll be able to generate income from it. A service becomes a career.
This process works whether you’re self-employed or traditionally employed, and the steps may overlap as well.
