Today, the ‘Me-generation’, where many of us have at least a college degree, no longer just want a normal job, we want a career, something that will give us job satisfaction, money, power, and prestige. We’re proselytized to chase after our dreams since … we are exposed to American values*. During our parents’ generation, the purpose of a job is to put food on the table, to make ends meet. They traded what they wanted for options for us to choose, so that we can pick what we want to do with our lives. But how many of us, freshly out of college, really know what is the right choice to make?
In Singapore, alot of people**, at least those within the proximity of my social circle, have an eye on that 100K/year banking career. Pursuing your dream, doing what you love, in this country, more often than not, means accepting a drastic pay cut, and working in a less prestigious or obscure even industry. When it comes to applying for a job, many (many, not all, so I don’t fall into the sweeping statement trap) of us face the dilemma of choosing the high paying banking job or the ‘follow your passion’ route.
My intention is not to further propagate the importance of following your passion, doing what you love. Thanks to the Internet, we can now find proliferating articles telling us just that: how fulfilled you’ll feel, how you’ll find true happiness only by following your passion, how you enjoy it so much you won’t think it’s a job. Then when this tune is slowly becoming a passing fad, some would come in and replace it with a different tune, for example: to find happiness, we should forget about our passion,instead, we should be finding big world problems to solve.
I honestly don’t think we need anymore guys like Oliver Segovia, (who’s essentially reiterating the same rhetoric) to teach us how to live our lives. They all convey the same message. Problem is, we jump on the bandwagon and start abusing buzzwords so fast that we forget to ‘think’ and to ‘understand’. Doing what we love, and solving world’s problems are not mutually exclusive. Saying that shows a lack of real understanding of what the word ‘love’ means. What’s the subtext behind this ‘love’ of ours.
This ‘love’, should be real, pure, and selfless. If what we love doing, risks hurting other people, be it our family, our friends, make us feel selfish and guilty (sometimes), then this ‘love’ could be false love, it is not pure, because we don’t love every part of it. We should also never mistaken pleasures as love, because the former is ultimately fleeting and unsatisfactory. Real love is enduring, we love it during the bad times, as much as the good times. For example: when an entrepreneur says he loves what he’s doing, it encompasses both success and failure, and he never gives up easily (that’s different from pivoting). The reason why it’s enduring, is because it’s worth fighting for, we derive meaning and purpose from it – it not only feels good, it also do good. By doing what we love, we are serving a purpose that’s larger than ourselves, we produce things that make the world a better place, and in the process we provide inspiration to others. If we’ve found this love, there’s no longer the need to balance between doing good and feeling good. This love connects the self, society, and environment.
Of course, I’ve described all these in the most idealistic way. And reality is anything but idealistic. But this post will serve as a reminder to myself that this is a worthy goal to work towards to, and in whatever I do in the future, to consciously reflect on whether it is pure love, or just another fleeting pleasure of mine.
*Most Asian parents that I know still want their children to become doctors, engineers and lawyers.
**I am straightly referring to friends and acquaintances I know. It might apply to other people, it might not.
This is my Lala Land 