Alright, I am sick of the news talking about how there are no jobs (again), how this has to be Obama's fault and that we are all financially doomed with no way out. These are excuses. The current workplace is not about seeking a position that available, it's about creating a position for yourself if you want to be successful and happy. There is no way around it. My blog post today is about just that.
College. Our parents told us it was the "safe" way to guarantee a job and we listened to them. Our parents would never give us bad advice, right? After all, our parents were the poster-child of the American dream... cookie cutter homes, cars, mildly satisfying careers, daily routine and not living outside the norm and they want us to have that. Problem is, this lifestyle can't work for us anymore. Still, most of us are told to sign up for college right after high-school (when we are way too young to make any good decisions), we end up spending a lot of time and money so that we can get the same skills, same degree and compete for the same jobs everyone else has been programmed to work. Then, we are supposed to surrender the rest of our lives to that job to make ends meet, we are supposed to "suffer and work hard" every day, we miss out on life's adventures and time with family because of work and hopefully... one day... we can retire comfortably and then start living. Yeah, start living when you're old and falling apart and it's often too late. Wait. What?! This plan is terrible! Mom! Why are you making me do this?!!
Our parents are well intended with their advice to work like this and that sort of plan worked well for their standards in their time. Our parents have a hard time grasping the ENDLESS opportunities of our "digital revolution". The job opportunities that rise to the top are self-driven and don't require stuffy suits, 9-5's and looking forward to your half hour lunch breaks. The new careers seem "unsafe" to them because they don't fit within the schedules and restraints they have spent their lives working within. This is why our parents may be good at a lot of advice in life, but the workplace just isn't one of them (disregard that comment if your parents are entrepreneurs, doctors or innovators of some sort).
So who finds happiness and success in their LIFE and their careers in our future? Innovators. Thinkers. Creators. Risk-takers. Artists. Healers. Independent people who rely on themselves for success. Hybrid "do-it-all-by-myself" types. They are the idea people who don't just talk about their ideas, they make them happen. They don't wait for someone else to dictate their lives. They concern themselves with the big picture, the little details are better tasked for computers. Computers may have taken away traditional jobs, but they've opened up much more exciting ones (think Google, Mark Zuckerberg) The jobs are plenty, they are just not laid out in bullet-points for us to choose from. They require original ideas, self-motivation and the ability to build something out of nothing. They require us to travel down a road no one has been on before.
Some people say your work should not define you. Huh? Where did that come from? I suppose if you hate your job, this is a great way to feel better about it. Everything defines us- our friends, our facebook posts, our attitudes, the way we treat people, handle situations, the clothes we wear- and definitely the place we spend our time generating income! Why would we allow ourselves to settle for less than who we believe we are? Why wouldn't our work we spend so much time cultivating in our short lifetime define us? I can bet Steve Jobs is proud that the Apple products he invented became his identity!
Yes, we may be heading into an other recession and it's easy to feel helpless. There is no job security, but isn't job security ultimately always decided by someone else? If you are your own boss, you can guarantee you will work hard for yourself, right? The best careers of our future aren't the ones that our parents worked, so this recession doesn't have to effect us the way it does them.
Unfortunately, this change in the workplace happened at a really unfortunate time for our hard-working parents who should be happily retiring from their lifelong jobs. What we can recognize is that there's never been a better time to take the chance and build your own career. Every job is risky right now, what have you to lose? I say use the recession as a reason to take a chance and do something you've always dreamed of. Believe, me, when I graduated with $100k in school loan debt in the middle of a recession, I knew I had nothing to lose and I was going to need a big plan! I went for my dreams, and I am glad I did.
So, there you go. Mom, I love you, but I just don't know how to respond when you say, "Valerie, why don't you come back to Minnesota and get a normal job?!!". That sounds like a long, boring, slow death.
Whatever you choose to do, make sure you make the people you love a priority.
Ok, now I have to lighten things up with a ridiculous picture... mostly to remind you not to take me too seriously...
College. Our parents told us it was the "safe" way to guarantee a job and we listened to them. Our parents would never give us bad advice, right? After all, our parents were the poster-child of the American dream... cookie cutter homes, cars, mildly satisfying careers, daily routine and not living outside the norm and they want us to have that. Problem is, this lifestyle can't work for us anymore. Still, most of us are told to sign up for college right after high-school (when we are way too young to make any good decisions), we end up spending a lot of time and money so that we can get the same skills, same degree and compete for the same jobs everyone else has been programmed to work. Then, we are supposed to surrender the rest of our lives to that job to make ends meet, we are supposed to "suffer and work hard" every day, we miss out on life's adventures and time with family because of work and hopefully... one day... we can retire comfortably and then start living. Yeah, start living when you're old and falling apart and it's often too late. Wait. What?! This plan is terrible! Mom! Why are you making me do this?!!
Our parents are well intended with their advice to work like this and that sort of plan worked well for their standards in their time. Our parents have a hard time grasping the ENDLESS opportunities of our "digital revolution". The job opportunities that rise to the top are self-driven and don't require stuffy suits, 9-5's and looking forward to your half hour lunch breaks. The new careers seem "unsafe" to them because they don't fit within the schedules and restraints they have spent their lives working within. This is why our parents may be good at a lot of advice in life, but the workplace just isn't one of them (disregard that comment if your parents are entrepreneurs, doctors or innovators of some sort).
So who finds happiness and success in their LIFE and their careers in our future? Innovators. Thinkers. Creators. Risk-takers. Artists. Healers. Independent people who rely on themselves for success. Hybrid "do-it-all-by-myself" types. They are the idea people who don't just talk about their ideas, they make them happen. They don't wait for someone else to dictate their lives. They concern themselves with the big picture, the little details are better tasked for computers. Computers may have taken away traditional jobs, but they've opened up much more exciting ones (think Google, Mark Zuckerberg) The jobs are plenty, they are just not laid out in bullet-points for us to choose from. They require original ideas, self-motivation and the ability to build something out of nothing. They require us to travel down a road no one has been on before.
Some people say your work should not define you. Huh? Where did that come from? I suppose if you hate your job, this is a great way to feel better about it. Everything defines us- our friends, our facebook posts, our attitudes, the way we treat people, handle situations, the clothes we wear- and definitely the place we spend our time generating income! Why would we allow ourselves to settle for less than who we believe we are? Why wouldn't our work we spend so much time cultivating in our short lifetime define us? I can bet Steve Jobs is proud that the Apple products he invented became his identity!
Yes, we may be heading into an other recession and it's easy to feel helpless. There is no job security, but isn't job security ultimately always decided by someone else? If you are your own boss, you can guarantee you will work hard for yourself, right? The best careers of our future aren't the ones that our parents worked, so this recession doesn't have to effect us the way it does them.
Unfortunately, this change in the workplace happened at a really unfortunate time for our hard-working parents who should be happily retiring from their lifelong jobs. What we can recognize is that there's never been a better time to take the chance and build your own career. Every job is risky right now, what have you to lose? I say use the recession as a reason to take a chance and do something you've always dreamed of. Believe, me, when I graduated with $100k in school loan debt in the middle of a recession, I knew I had nothing to lose and I was going to need a big plan! I went for my dreams, and I am glad I did.
So, there you go. Mom, I love you, but I just don't know how to respond when you say, "Valerie, why don't you come back to Minnesota and get a normal job?!!". That sounds like a long, boring, slow death.
Whatever you choose to do, make sure you make the people you love a priority.
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Tell me what you're thinking...