Entitlement is a 4-letter word

Oh boy - this one is gonna move around a bit - so try to keep up.

I'm going to refer to this bit later on - but I think it's interesting so let's do it first. Try this exercise for me. On a piece of paper, draw 3 concentric circles (I'm not sure what concentric means really... but we're drawing a VENN diagram). Label each circle with one of the following:

1. Things I love to do
2. Things I'm good at
3. Things I can get paid to do

Then start filling it in. After a while you will notice that some items fall into multiple circles. For instance, I love to watch movies. I am also good at watching movies. However, I haven't yet found a way to get paid to watch movies... so I can only list this one in 2 out of the 3 circles. Ok I'm going to get back to this later on in the post.

Do you ever think about why you chose your career path? Is it something that you dreamed about doing when you were young? Did it seem like you could make more money in this career than in another job that you may have found more rewarding emotionally?

When you go home at night, do you think about your career - and how you can make yourself better?

See, I'm using the word "career" because it's different than a "job". When you study to gain a skill-set in something, and then plan on doing that in some capacity for a long time - then I would call that a career. Conversely, if you get up at noon and spend your evening saying "would you like fries with that?" then you have a job. But don't fret - people with jobs can keep reading too.

We are the first generation to see college as a necessity. As I was going through high school, they constantly stressed the importance of doing the things that would help me get accepted into the college that I chose. They told me that if I got a degree then I would graduate and enter the work force... and then the money/promotions would start rolling in.

So we went to college, and graduated with our bachelor's degrees, and got jobs. And then we sat in our cubicles and wondered when the big bag of money with our name on it was supposed to get delivered. But it never did. And many of us responded with "What the fuck?!"

And the world says that we have a sense of entitlement. But ya know what I say to the world? It's your fault! (I'm going to avoid even bringing up the paradox I've just created... we simply don't have that kind of time). Let me explain...

50 years ago, most people didn't go to college. They just graduated high school and started working somewhere. So let's say that the promotional ladder in this fake company has 10 rungs. When a person graduated high school he would start at the bottom rung. He would work hard and some day he might make it to middle management (rung 7). Now, some people DID go to college back then. So when they graduated with their fancy business degree they would start working at the company already at rung 5, and jump right past your ignorant parents on the way up.

There are two points I'm trying to make here:
1. Our parents worked HARD because they were never able to work SMART. So today they say we are lazy. Well, we're not... we're just smarter than you.
2. As we grew up, our parents kept telling us that if we went to college then we'd get a great job and make tons of money... because that's what was true back when they were our age! They made us think that we would be handed comfy jobs with big salaries by getting that stupid diploma.

But now we've moved into a new class system. People in the base class all have college diplomas - and they are worth about as much as a high school diploma back in the 50's (except with 80K+ of debt attached). To get into the upper class today you need 2 things: a post-graduate degree, and a passion for your career. Heck, I would even drop the post-graduate degree and just keep the passion part.

The people who get ahead today are the ones who eat, sleep, and breath their career. They are always thinking about how to help their company to better. They spend nights reading up on the latest "methods" so they can be on the forefront of change. They are the ones who have hobbies that are strikingly similar to their career. The best example I can think of is a computer programmer. The programmers I know who are very successful are the ones who go home at night and write programs for fun. Or they read books about the latest languages and standards.

My point is that if you want to make a lot of money and be successful then you had better become passionate about what you do. You need to constantly work at it - day and night.

So let's talk about the 3 overlapping (I know what that word means at least) circles from the beginning of this post. Ideally you want your career to fall into all 3 circles. Most people have careers that fall into 2 of the 3 circles. If your career only falls into the category of "things I can get paid to do" then you need to find a new career.

I think there are a lot of us out there who choose careers before we really know if we like it or not. Society forces us to make life-altering choices without full knowledge of the consequences.

Well anyway, this is the kind of stuff that has been on my mind. See, I have my career. And I have some hobbies which are similar. But then I have some hobbies which are not similar. For instance, I love movies. I love watching them, and talking about them, and would love to make them. I am even currently writing a script (not because I think it would ever make money... I just really wanted to get an idea on paper). So I often wonder if I'm in the wrong business. Maybe I should go to hollywood and make movies, instead.

The other reason I am thinking about this stuff is that we only have so many hours in the day. We can't do it all. We can't have a million hobbies and side-projects. At some point, you have to choose a path. Well lately I've been adding quite a few things to my daily "regime" and it's getting pretty crowded. So I think I need to stop some hobbies.

You should look at yourself for a bit and reflect. Do you like what you do? Are you willing to put in the effort to succeed? Are your hobbies indicating that you are in the wrong career? Or maybe indicating that you have the wrong hobbies?

Or maybe I'm just a complete nut-case who needs to stop whining and writing super long blog posts that don't really go anywhere. Can I get an Amen?