When Your Job Becomes Your Life

This is a declaration.

A young kid, hardly 17 year old. He wanted to get into college. Journalism school. I asked him why. “Why not build your current network and start your own blog?”

I asked this because he was already writing for two blogs, and had two solid connections in TV, both of them privy to his intention of joining their field. This was (and is) rare indeed for a 17 year old.

So I kept insisting why not start a blog? I kept brining up how he could make this much money if he sold this much of that and he finally said: well you are always money minded, I want to join the school because I want to learn!

I was silent. Because I was shocked.

I was sounding like a money minded guy? The whole reason I was having this conversation was to tell him that going to the Uni will bring him back to the same question, “what now?” He already had an answer brewing for him. Trying to execute his dream would require learning, constant learning and intense growth, much much more than any universtity could ever offer. But I came off as someone who just wanted him to make money.

How ridiculous.

And then when I asked around a few friends if they have a job available for me, I got another shock. “You, the enemy of jobs, you want a job now?” quipped one friend.

“But why are you doing a job now? Everything alright? You were the last person who would do a job?” said the other.

What the hell? I am not against job… I am simply against these two notions:

1. You study and go through almost 16 years of education/schooling so that you can get a job. This is wrong. Schooling should be focused on learning and helping us understand how to learn.
2. You get a job because you want to earn money, this too is wrong. If earning a healthy income is your goal, then getting strewn around in the marketplace trying to sell your idea, your product or service is the best learning ground. No job can come close in teaching you the fundamentals of selling. In my 10+ years of talking with new entrepreneurs (many coming from years of job experience), this notion of selling is the hardest to learn. Most people live their lives thinking that “selling” is simply lying to get someone to buy stuff from you. Some actually first convinced them to “Cheat” because now they are going to be in business. Pathetic. But I digress.

So these two notions are what I am against.