“I want to be a doctor, I’ve always wanted to be a doctor. I volunteered with paramedics back home.”
It was weeks into my time in college. I was talking to another classmate after a freshman orientation event. I knew that I’d be surrounded by extraordinary people, but I didn’t think my first weeks at Princeton would have me surrounded by so many odd people. There were your typical nerds - I’d argue we were all a bit awkward and growing into ourselves as 18-year-olds. And there were archetypes of people who I’d never met before. You can imagine that the diversity on an Ivy League campus in central New Jersey was a bit greater than the range of people spending their days in a small town in Northern Alabama, where I grew up. But diverse interests, nationalities, and senses of humor weren’t what caught me off guard.
In my first days on campus, and throughout my four years of college, I continually heard stories of people who knew what they wanted to do from a very young age. The idea of knowing that you wanted a certain career path from youth was stunning to me.
Maybe it was because my own family didn’t actively encourage particular interests. Or maybe it was because I was always into a broad slate of activities depending on where I was in life. But the idea that another college student knew and had known for years that they wanted to be a doctor, or a lawyer, or a management consultant was strange to me.
And then I realized that I was the strange one.
Finding Your Thing
After meandering through an early career in leadership development, consulting, and tech, I now feel confident in saying that finding your thing and getting good at it is one of the most important things that you can do. That “thing” doesn’t necessarily have to be a career or make money. However, your thing is going to call for as much of your attention as you can give it, and you will generally need to pay bills at some point.
I’ve typically seen three obstacles to young people and professionals finding their path:
- The Myth of Optionality
- The Need for Status Games
- Ignoring Your Voice
The Myth of Optionality
This is a trap that a number of smart, ambitious people fall into. The core belief starts with something positive, like “I have a ton of potential, so I need to spend it on something worthwhile.” In theory, the desire is to keep all options open by pursuing paths that tend to not go wrong. In the recent past, this has been careers like management consulting, big law firms, and investment banking. In the past, I imagine it was other careers like working at General Electric or General Motors. I think one of the common denominators is just going after something big, stable, secure, alongside a number of other classmates.
What’s wrong with this? For the most part, nothing. If you do what many others do, and get out in 2 years,
Why is it important to find your voice?
Beyond personal satisfaction and fullness, there is someone out there waiting for you to perform your calling. It could be a stranger that needs your help, and it could be your future child. But constantly pursuing things to keep your options open, or playing status games, or just ignoring what you are uniquely compelled to do is the sort of stuff that breeds a generation of people who don’t feel, who aren’t inspired, and who aren’t moved to do something meaningful. We see the idea of something exciting, and write it off because of the risk.
If someone is relying on you for security, then there are certainly sacrifices that need to be made. With a young family, I can certainly attest to the need for stability. But one of the biggest challenges and opportunities for our generation at this stage is to take meaningful risks. Rather than working on things that keep us in purgatory, devoting our time to things that will inspire us, and by virtue, inspire others. Even if some people figured that out in their earlier years, it’s never too late to start.