The quest to find work you love
What I've learned from banging my head against the wall
I will preface this by saying that, as always, I’m writing about this topic as a student who is deep in the curriculum - not as a master who has it all figured out.
I’ve learned a lot over the past few months of self-inflicted unemployment. This post is an attempt at summarizing those learnings to (selfishly) learn and grow from them.
I love this quote from Jerry Seinfeld’s recent commencement speech at Duke:
Making work easier, this is the problem. So obsessed with getting to the answer, completing the project, producing a result, which are all valid things. But not where the richness of the human experience lies. The only two things you ever need to pay attention to in life are work and love. Things that are self-justified in the experience, and who cares about the result. Stop rushing to what you perceive as some valuable endpoint. Learn to enjoy the expenditure of energy that may or may not be on the correct path.
The end result that many of us pursue often lacks the richness of the human experience. Work (and love, but we’ll save that topic for another day) is a self-justified experience – its meaning comes from the act of doing rather than the final destination. That is great career advice.
What I’ve learned on my quest (so far)
Finding work you love can be incredibly hard. I suspect this is what makes it meaningful.
Not everyone is on the same quest as you, and that’s ok - a lot of people are genuinely content in their career, they’ve found what other’s are looking for, and that’s a blessing.
Work is about more than just the job itself. It’s about the people you spend time with, the freedom it provides you (both financially and your time), and the less romantic day to day tasks. It’s about what you are actually doing vs. some fancy title or job description. A helpful way to tell if you’ll enjoy a certain type of work is to actually do it (for example, if you think you want to be an investor, then trade with a paper portfolio for 6 months). You will find out very quickly if it’s something you like and are good at.
Inspiration is like a poorly trained dog, it does not usually come when called. Learning about yourself may require a different way of thinking. Career focused people are often used to fast paced, relentless hustle. Introspection and inspiration are part of a different game - one that has different rules. I’ve found engaging in activities that promote creative states (exercise, sauna, walking, reading fiction, meditating) can help but sometimes you just have to be patient and try again later.
Action is the path. There are no shortcuts (trust me, I’ve tried). There is no other path. You must eventually do the thing. Write the essay, build the app, have the meeting, do the thing. If it turns out to be the wrong thing, then be grateful for the learnings and move on to the next thing.
It’s likely that younger generations (myself included) are underestimating the sacrifices that are required to do great work. Somewhere along the way society coddled us and told us that we could have work life balance and a six figure starting salary. Scott Galloway often says “you can have it all, just not all at once. Expect to work very hard and make sacrifices if you want to achieve wealth and influence at a young age. The myth of work-life balance is unrealistic”. I think the useful takeaway here is to acknowledge that this will be hard and to make a choice: are you willing to make the necessary sacrifices that come along with the type of work you are pursuing?
Everyone has blind spots. The surface area of what you know is likely much smaller than you think, this is especially true if you’re young. You can be smart and still have lots to learn. Make sure you are open to being wrong and learning from it. It’s great to have informed opinions and stand up for what you believe, but try to avoid dying on hills that you don’t fully understand.
Geography matters (sorry). Before you get all defensive: I am MASSIVELY pro flexibility, but there is no substitute for human connection. Working from home is not sufficient. You can start there. You can work there sometimes. You can have a day off there. But at some point, you need to be in person with your team/customer/mentors/fellow solopreneurs/humans. This could be going to the office 5 days a week, a weekly meetup, a quarterly offsite, random coffee shop meetings, whatever works for you. Go find the people that you need to interact with and spend time with them, in person (this would be such an insanely obvious thing to say a few years ago).
Expose yourself to as much information as possible, but use a good filter. It’s helpful to cast a wide net for information and get good at filtering, since you don’t know where the gems are going to be. I think early on you want to meet everyone, read everything, listen to every podcast, go to every event, and then filter out all the bullshit and take the learnings you can from each one.
You should be slightly extreme. If you’re feeling it, give yourself the space to ride that wave. Clear your calendar. Stay up all night. Leave tomorrow morning on a week-long trip without your phone. Say no to everything and lock yourself inside for 3 days. Go out partying all weekend. Try and free yourself from what society tells you is normal, and focus on doing things that seem crazy but work for you.
The journey is paramount. The biggest sin is to spend all your time focusing on a goal only to completely miss the actual life part. Yes, making sacrifices is necessary, but there’s more time in a day than most believe, and it’s up to you to make sure that time is spent being present. If you’re working, work insanely hard. But don’t use it as an excuse to not have dinner with your partner, or to act stressed out all the time, or to not enjoy the sunshine in the morning. Life is not that serious. It’s serious, but just not that serious. Enjoy the sunshine.
If you happen to be on your own quest, here are some things that have helped me:
The Algebra of Wealth - Book by Scott Galloway
How to Do Great Work - Essay by Paul Graham
So Good They Can’t Ignore You - Book by Cal Newport
Insufferable AI generated image of a guy setting out on a quest :)
Love it!