The world doesn’t need more mediocre yoga teachers.
It needs more good electricians, good nurse practitioners, and exceptional yoga teachers.
Your first goal is life is to become a good person (Lesson 4). Your second goal in life is to get good at something valuable to society.
If there were one vocation that produced guaranteed unlimited happiness, we’d know it. There isn’t one. You can be happy and feel purpose in almost any job.
When choosing a job, choose one the world actually needs. It’s your best path to financial independence.
“He that hath a trade hath an estate.”
— Benjamin Franklin
Twenty thousand years ago, everyone person had a job to do for their tribe’s survival. One person couldn’t practice yoga all day because it was his “passion”. Animals needed hunting, food needed preparing, clothes needed making.
The penalty for sloth: starvation.
Today’s society still requires food, clothing, shelter — and surgery, tax returns, and contract negotiations.
Do What Pays Well
Too many of my high school friends chose college degrees in kinesiology (because they liked working out) and public relations (because they liked partying). Surprisingly (not really), they couldn’t find jobs in those fields after college.
My friend’s daughter, in contrast, chose her career path early in high school. She examined a list of jobs and their respective income levels. She chose the one at the top — she’s becoming a doctor.
Benjamin Franklin created one of the first libraries, organized one of the first fire stations, was one of the most popular writers of his time, contributed to the study of electricity, and helped form the United States of America.
He began his career running a printing press. Franklin’s trade provided him income, in America and England, while he developed himself and pursued his other interests.
Choose a trade that is needed in today’s society. Starting salary is a good indication of the supply of qualified workers versus the demand of how many are needed. Select a field in which there is likely to be more demand than supply for the next decade.
Create a list of five potential high-paying career options. Choose the one for which you have some natural aptitude: sales if you love interacting with people, nurse if you like taking care of others, electrician if you can’t stand the idea of working in an office eight hours a day, and so on.
If you believe you can be in the top 1% of a highly crowded, low earning field, pursue it as a side job. Develop your skills in that area in the mornings, at night, and on the weekends. See if you can really become the best and will earn enough money at it before you give up a career in which you have a high-probability of making good money.
Acquire Independence
If you save and invest 50-70% of your income, you can retire in as little as 10 years.
Pete Adeney, also known as Mr. Money Mustache, retired in nine years with an average total annual earnings between he and his wife of $135K.
So why doesn’t everyone in their 30s or 40s retire?
First, they don’t make $100,000 per year. To make a six-figure salary, you have to choose the right field and work at it to build your skills. Then, you have to stick with it. Jumping to new jobs or passions every few years doesn’t produce the stable income required to retire early. Persisting at a job means going to work five days a week, even into an office (gasp!), dealing with annoying bosses, and getting on Zoom calls. In the long run of life, spending a decade dealing with a few inconveniences in exchange for a lifetime of complete and permanent financial independence is worth it.
Second, people don’t gain financial independence because they don’t save 50-70% of their income. They spend every dollar they make and more. Like indebted governments, they don’t say “no”. They spend and spend, forever pushing off their ability to save enough to not have to work. A lifetime of “yeses” robs people of freedom.
Work at the useful trade or skill you’ve chosen for a decade. Keep learning. Work diligently. Save as much as possible. Invest prudently and conservatively.
Soon, you’ll be free forever.
Give Without Needing to Receive
Financial independence is when the earnings from your investments meet or exceed your living expenses. At that point, you may still work. However, you work because you like it and find it meaningful, not because you have to.
It’s huge shift.
It’s also uncomfortable.
You’ve spent a decade or more going to work, receiving paychecks, and trying to get better and better at your job to make more money. Now, you don’t have to.
What do you do when you don’t have to do anything?
Some paint the life of financial freedom as filled with gardening, fishing, and beach vacations.
Problem one: other people still have to work.
Problem two: indulging in solitary hobbies every day of every week as much as you want eventually feels meaningless.
I worked with a business coach for four years who retired the first time in his early 30s after taking a company public at 29. He moved to Sarasota, Florida to play golf every day. What he discovered scared him. Many of the retirees were alcoholics. They’d made enough money to never have to work again, so they spent all their time golfing, fishing, and drinking. Many were miserable and depressed.
We need purpose, especially when accumulating more money no longer motivates us.
Here’s the answer to life’s purpose. No more consulting shamans or gurus. No need to attend “discover your life purpose” seminars. Here it is, in four words:
Do good for others.
“We have two lives, and the second beings when we realize we only have one.”
— Confucius
Your second life, which has been your first and only life all along, is to do the most good you possibly can for your fellow human beings and the world you live in.
This post is part of a series inspired by Steven Pressfield’s calling question, “What would you do if you had three months left to live?” I’d share what I’ve learned with those I love and anyone who’d listen. Here are all Lessons.