| > Most super-achievers I know would do their "work" even if they weren't paid and they had to get a day job to support their interests.
True, and our son feels he will always want to run his own company or have some other form of work (be it playing keyboard in a subway station or whatever), but *on his own terms* and those super-achievers are also doing things *on their own terms* - it is far easier to love your job if you dictate your job by owning the company...don't like doing taxes, hire an accountant; don't like dealing with email, have a secretary handle it; etc. Indeed, part of our son's motivation in becoming self-employed again is to be able to do things more on his own terms again.
I realize I can paint our son is a dismal light, and to be honest, it's not like he does *nothing* - he volunteers to do a bunch of things - he did the art that went on his dorm's alumni dinner concert program and on the mugs that each alumni got as a gift a couple of weeks ago and does tons of other volunteer work for his dorm such that he won an award for giving the most to the dorm the first year he was eligible for that award and he's only gotten still more active since; he teaches high school kids about his research and the math behind it every Saturday and is co-directing a summer program for high school kids to take college level academics (the current teaching is volunteer; the summer work will actually be with pay, but he would do it even if it weren't); he entertains people at various functions by playing all sorts of instruments (sometimes three simultaneously, which got the most applause at a recent concert; he also plays somewhat unusual instruments for people to play like the bowed psaltry, and instrument he bought himself, and the slide whistle); he creates rather nice birthday cards for friends, and so on. It's more that someone suggesting or instructing him to do things doesn't motivate him like following through on his own ideas does. |