In a recent survey, university students were asked why they had chosen a particular course. To my amazement, over 60 percent had chosen their degree for the perceived financial benefits. In a separate survey, 48 percent of our current workforce wished they had studied something totally different, and 25 percent were still unsure about their career choice.
You are going to devote a lot of time and energy to what you do. I can’t stress enough the importance of truly enjoying what you do. The average person is going to spend over 83,000 hours in their place of work. The average businessperson works 20 percent longer hours than an employee, so that is around 100,000 hours in your chosen field.
You don’t want to set yourself up in a career for the money. That makes for 100,000 miserable hours—just for the money. So find something you love. Find something you have a passion for. Find something you are great at.
It doesn’t matter whether you decide to be an engineer or a tiddlywinks player—if you are the best in the world, you will make money from it. Too many people go into a vocation not for a love of it but for the impression that it is a profitable occupation. One reason people change occupations so many times in their lives is that they chase occupations, not vocations.
One of our IT clients is a school, and a new principal had started at the school. He wanted to have a discussion about the future of their IT, as he wanted to take it in a different direction.
We started off the discussion with the principal wanting to bring the IT support back in-house instead of outsourcing to our firm. During the discussion, the principal stopped and said that he had changed his mind. He was so impressed by my genuine passion for IT and technology that he wanted our firm still involved in his school. My passion alone won him over.
I didn’t do anything extraordinary, though—I simply spoke genuinely about IT with the authentic passion I have for my vocation. That won the day!