
EXPERT ANSWER
May 20, 2019 - 04:29 PM
Choosing between love and career is a difficult choice for any person. In an ideal world, we would like to have both. Very often, our parents advise us not to follow our passions. Careers in art or singing rarely pay the bills, and careers in professional sports are difficult to achieve. Counting on payoff in those fields is difficult.
Parents often advise their children to study something practical, like law or business or engineering. Those degrees lead to stable jobs. And, stable jobs do pay the bills. This is what families, and especially parents, want for their children – stability.
But, at some point, there's a middle ground that should be considered. Too many people wake up mid-career only to find out that they're miserable in the life they've created.
If your passion isn't one that is likely to lead to a large income, consider adjacent opportunities. Every professional basketball team needs a staff. Behind the team, there are accountants and marketers and operations folks. There are more people running the day to day operations of a professional team than actually playing on the team.
Very often, if we can find a career that intersects with our passions, we can find a career we love. So, in the end, you don't always have to pick between love and career.
Parents often advise their children to study something practical, like law or business or engineering. Those degrees lead to stable jobs. And, stable jobs do pay the bills. This is what families, and especially parents, want for their children – stability.
But, at some point, there's a middle ground that should be considered. Too many people wake up mid-career only to find out that they're miserable in the life they've created.
If your passion isn't one that is likely to lead to a large income, consider adjacent opportunities. Every professional basketball team needs a staff. Behind the team, there are accountants and marketers and operations folks. There are more people running the day to day operations of a professional team than actually playing on the team.
Very often, if we can find a career that intersects with our passions, we can find a career we love. So, in the end, you don't always have to pick between love and career.