I saw this diagram as an adult and
just loved it! My kids are always asking what they should be when they grow up.
My parents without question gave the advice of, "Do what you love, and the
money will follow." It was such a great thing to tell a child.
Unfortunately, their advice could not have been more incorrect! I did what I
love and became a marriage therapist. I should say, “I became poor!” And, I am
even on the higher end of the pay scale for therapists because I have a PhD!
So, what to tell a child? I talk to
my children now about the diagram above as a good foundation to start the
conversation. You have to find a job that you love, you're good at (or can get
good at) and that pays well. Usually, their next question is, "So, which
jobs make money?"
In our family, we have come up with
one main prerequisite for a job to earn money. The prerequisite is that there
must be a high barrier for entry, and thus a low supply of workers. An example would
be a doctor. Medical school is so difficult, long, and expensive, it keeps most
would be docs far away from this profession. Another example of a high paying
profession is engineers. But, think about being an engineer, you have to do
math all day! That automatically takes out about half of the population that
hates math.
In the end, if you want a high
paying job, you’re going to have to do the work no one else either can or wants
to do. Or, as the diagram above shows, do what you love, just be ready to be
happy but poor. And, in my experience, poor does not equal happy :) Yes you can
find happiness anywhere, but as the Everclear song said, "I hate people
who try to tell me money is the root of all that kills. They have never been
poor. They have never had the joy of a welfare Christmas."
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