<p>Many people do not like what they do. Many people like what they do. Some people love what they do. Some people in all of these groups are successful in their jobs, though I imagine people who truly do not like their jobs are less likely to work hard enough to find career success in it. Further, many people find meaning in their lives, and a form of success, outside of their jobs, such as with family or community involvement. </p>
<p>You are not “quitejaded” at all, QJ, if you thought that people needed to love their jobs in order to find success in that career. </p>
<p>Balance what you like to do with what you need to get from it, but you don’t need to find a career that inspires a passion within you in order to do it well. </p>
<p>It’s sure easier to get up everyday when you love what you do.</p>
<p>I always say follow your passion, rather than the money, but I am on a rather lonely boat in this regard. Your parents have much more company in their thinking.</p>
<p>Only you can decide if you want a life where your work is a source of personal satisfaction. You have only one life to live. Why should you devote it to work that you don’t like? </p>
<p>Of course, everyone has to do some things that are not to one’s liking. But preparation for work and one’s work takes many, many hours of one’s time. You will never get those hours back again.</p>
<p>The question is when you will have the resources and autonomy to make your own choices. I have had students who, when graduating college, were going to do work or graduate study that their parents thought best. I wondered when the newly minted college grads would start living their own lives. They could have done so if they were willing to take responsibility for their own choices, including financial responsibility.</p>
<p>“They said successful people do not do what they like.”</p>
<p>A wise man once said do what you love and you will never have to work a day in your life. </p>
<p>I disagree with your parents although that is the way that I was raised (back in the '60’s/70’s). My father, a successful anesthesiologist, HATED his job, worked all the time and died young (of lymphocytic leukemia).
My husband, who has degrees in business and chemical engineering (MIT), is a successful futures trader who loves what he does. He started trading potato futures back in high school and never stops learning about his love. Trading is his passion. The markets are his mistress. He is happy and so, we are happy.
Find out what you love, then find a way to make it lucrative.</p>
<p>Parents tell their kids alot of things. Some will make sense, some won’t.</p>
<p>I told my kids about Santa Claus, the Easter Rabbit, the Tooth Fairy. I told my daughter that if she ate too much, her belly button would untie and she’d deflate like a balloon.</p>
<p>I told them if they went swimming and drowned, I’d kill em.</p>
<p>I didn’t tell them who or what to pray to, or what books to read, or not read.</p>
<p>I also told them to do what will make them happy.</p>
<p>They figured out what made sense and what didn’t.</p>
<p>My father was the most wonderful, caring, supportive person I have ever known. He was a great father and a wonderful husband to my mother. As he was dying with cancer, he told me that the only regret he had in his life was going into a career because he showed aptitude for it and it guaranteed financial security—he turned his back on the path where his true passion laid.</p>
<p>For him, his job was always only a job and a means to support his family–but did not offer personal fulfillment.</p>
<p>What my father told me is something that I have found to fit quite well over the years. That is, decide what your priorities are. What do you love doing? What makes you happy? Whatever that is, either make a career out of it or find a career that will support it. So, if having a comfortable lifestyle and being able to play golf on the weekends is what makes you happy, then a lucrative job (even one you don’t like) would be a good way to be happy, because you wouldn’t expect to derive pleasure directly from your work. But it’s also possible to find a job you love and find happiness without wealth, if your personal vision of happiness doesn’t involve lots of money.</p>
<p>High maintenance people need higher salaried jobs. Low maintenance people can work for less. What makes you happy? What do you want to do, how do you want to live, and what kind of job would support that lifestyle? Can you find something that meets your needs within your interests? You may have to do something else first to get to that point. Many people change career paths over time. I personally feel that college should be a time of exploration and learning, not totally just for career prep, but not everyone feels that way. </p>
<p>My father started out as an Engineering major because my grandfather thought it would help him enter the job market. He didn’t want to pay for a liberal arts education, I think because he had just survived the Depression Era. After almost flunking out freshman year, my father decided to be an English major. Upon graduation he was commissioned and served 28 years in the USMC as an infantry officer, but he also wrote articles on the side for military publications. He then wrote speeches for three Commandants, and upon retirement he worked as managing editor for a naval history magazine. He now writes military non-fiction. It took him a long time to get to the career he wanted, but what he did in the interim plays a big part in what he does now.</p>
<p>My father died at a young age leaving my Mom with 3 kids. My sister was graduating from college that year with a degree in education. MY brother was a college drop-out who was floundering around getting into all kinds of mishaps. I was in 6th grade. My mother worked part-time as our church secretary. It was the only job she ever had. We survived on her salary and social security. She never remarried. It was just her and me, sink or swim.</p>
<p>Her advice to me when I left for college was to be sure and pick a major that would prepare me for a job that would always be in demand so that I would always be able to take care of myself no matter what because you can never depend on someone else being around to take care of you (spouse or parent). I took her advice to heart. I majored in nursing. I have not worked in nursing for years now but I could do it if I had to.</p>
<p>Would your dad believe Donald Trump? Consider him successful? Trump has said over and over again that the best way to become successful (he may actually have said the only way) is to do what you love. Otherwise, you won’t work hard enough, stay long enough, or have the stamina to become truly successful.</p>
<p>Of course, as PackMom mentioned, if one’s passion isn’t necessarily stable in the beginning, one should have a plan so that one can support oneself on the way to becoming successful.</p>
<p>And of course some people love some aspects of their jobs, but not every aspect. Dh is a research biologist. He loves the research, likes teaching, and I think would be quite happy to never have to fill out a grant application. Similarly as an architect, I love the process of creation, but dealing with the red tape in building departments (and each town does it differently!) can be aggravating. I’m not too fond of contractors that try to cut corners, or don’t show up when promised either.</p>
<p>My reaction is: do what you have to in order to get your degree. If your parents are paying all or part of the way, they have a right to input. The important thing right now is to get the college diploma. Even if it isn’t in a field that you would ordinarily pursue, given nothing but freedom, it will help open doors for you. Once you have your ‘paper’, you can turn around and say “I did what you wanted; now I’m going to do what I want.” Of course, you’ll have to pay your own way 100% thereafter. But getting a degree will help you in whatever career you wind up with, even if its completely opposed to what you want to do. Look at the MBAs who wind up artists and lawyers who give it up to teach, etc., etc. It’s certainly easier to go from engineer to author than vice versa!</p>
<p>I believe strongly that you must find satisfaction in your work or the stress and misery will infect every other part of your life. People who are unhappy at work are sick more often, have more stressful relationships, and just aren’t very much fun. But one step at a time…you have your whole life ahead of you.</p>
<p>Success is different things to different people. Some consider it lots of money. Some consider it lots of “stuff.” Some consider it personal fulfillment. There are numerous definitions of success. The only one that actually counts is the one YOU have for yourself.</p>
<p>I know “successful” people who do what they like, and I know some who do what they don’t particularly care to do. Some people can do a job they don’t like & still find plenty of happiness elsewhere … the job is simply the means to survival. Others have jobs they enjoy but still don’t consider themselves successful … their idea of success might be a “better” job in the eyes of others, or a nicer car, or better-behaved kids, or whatever. The point is, a job is a job. It may or may not be an important factor in your personal success. Who knows?</p>
<p>The important thing is to live your life in a manner that makes you comfortable in your own skin. If family is important, you will need to balance your life with the reality of your family situation. Certainly, money is a necessity in order to live; you will need to make at least some! Success will come if you follow your heart.</p>
<p>Now the part about studying abroad … if your parents are paying for school, this falls under the “reality of your family situation” clause. As for advertising club, are you in high school? If so, you might need to wait until you get into college to join such a club. If you are in college, I think you might need to loosen the apron strings a bit & follow your passion.</p>
<p>For me success was doing what I want and not trying to make the most money. I got a BA in Psychology and Environmental Studies but would have had to pursue a graduate degree. Since I had always been interested in the movie industry, I ended up in management of a movie exhibition company. After becoming a division manager, I had no need to go any higher because I felt that even though the money would have been more, time demand would have been really negative on my family time. Stress and accompanying health issues need to be factored in with the additional power and money.</p>
<p>I can gladly say that I did what I wanted, made enough money and spent satisfying quality time with my family.</p>
<p>The opposite can be quite true if what you want to do is a hobby and you try to turn it into a career. I know many people who followed their passion into a career and the “job” aspect took all the joy out of their passion. One example: A good friend is an incredible photographer. Became a professional, working for a newspaper. For years taking pix became just a job, and not a hobby or passion. Recently, he stopped working for the paper and is having the time of his life taking photos that are amazing.</p>
<p>Allmusic: Move over cause I’m coming aboard! I agree with you and because I am old and grey I can say with experience that you are right as far as the passion thing goes. My husband was a fireman for 25 years and he retired right after 9/11 and started his own business. There is no passion in the running of this business just way too much stress and pressure of trying to manage 40 people and keep 100+ contractors happy. Yes, the money is great and the perks are great but people don’t want to work hard anymore and sorry to say he has the most difficulty with the young people he hires. He is so discouraged that he is planning on selling and retiring for good in the next year or so. Find out what makes you get up in the morning and excited about going to work and it won’t seem like work so the money won’t be such an issue and if you are doing the right thing you will do well and the amount of money you need will come. Learn to live within that circle and you will have found the key to being content and at peace.</p>
<p>As you may know, movie exhibition is the cinema business. I simply applied and started off as an assistant and worked my way up in 2 years. I liked what I was doing and since I was single in the initial years, I voluntarily put in the extra hours so I could advance as rapidly as possible. My degree still came in handy working with the public, employees and and contractors.</p>