When you have an accounting career looming ahead of you and when you're dedicating a substantial number of hours studying for CPA tests that teach you material you're sure to forget, it's easy to ask yourself if you're doing what you really want to do and should do. This is where I currently find myself.
I graduated from BYU's accounting program last April, and in October I will fulfill the destiny and dream of the accounting student by joining one of the Big 4 accounting firms, Deloitte. While I realize that I am fortunate to have gone through such a great program and have a good job ahead of me, I, like many accountants I'm sure, question my decision to enter this profession and wonder how I ever made the decision in the first place.
On that note, I really don't remember how I decided to study accounting. Remember those career tests you take in elementary school that are supposed to tell you what occupation fits you? When it was time to decide to apply for the accounting program, my mom told me about some of those early tests she stumbled upon, and sure enough they all told me I should be an accountant. I believed that was surely a sign from the heavens above, and I entered the accounting program never to look back. Until now.
Don't get me wrong, for all I know I may love my career in accounting and perhaps it will ultimately bring me great joy. If that is the case, this post has no meaning to me, for I am already living my dreams. But if not, I feel like this is a problem. One of my fears is to forever be haunted by this quote from Steve Jobs:
"For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: 'If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?' And whenever the answer has been 'No' for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something ... almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose."Due to my impending start date at Deloitte, this quote and similar thoughts have weighed heavily on my mind. So what's my point in writing about all of this? I guess my point is to encourage everyone to study or do what they love, and not what's practical. I chose practicality over passion. Accounting is a very sensible and secure profession. Seeing as how I believe myself to be quite risk averse, this career path made a lot of sense. But life isn't about avoiding risks. This is from Machiavelli's work, The Prince:
"All courses of action are risky, so prudence is not in avoiding danger (it's impossible), but calculating risk and acting decisively. Make mistakes of ambition and not mistakes of sloth. Develop the strength to do bold things, not the strength to suffer."Every decision is risky, even the decision to become an accountant. The risk isn't that I won't have enough money to live a comfortable lifestyle, it's that I won't do what I love and that I won't be happy. And as I think bout that, I realize that may be the more dangerous risk to take, but people often don't see it that way. They, like me, choose unhappiness over uncertainty. They develop the strength to suffer, and not the strength to do bold things.
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."I haven't been the best at following this advice, and I regret it. I wish I would have spent more time discovering what I love, so I could determine what I should have studied, and what I should do with my life. I wish I'd sailed away from the safe harbor and caught the trade winds in my sails more often. But it's better to discover this sooner rather than later. So find out what you love, be who you are, and remember that it is the possibility of having your dreams come true that makes life interesting.
PS. If you want to have a career in the arts, then this commencement speech by Neil Gaiman is an absolute must-listen.
So what is it that you love, young man? You say what it is you don't love. Catch the trade winds, but where do they take you too? What would you do if today where the last day you had to live.
ReplyDeleteStill, these are very lucid thoughts. I am sure you are not the first to have them, and probably won't be the last.
You are correct, I realize that I did not include what it is I would love. I guess the reason for that is I want people to read this and think about what they want with their lives, independent of anything I say about my own.
DeleteBut since you asked, I'll tell you the two things I keep coming back to that I would really enjoy doing: writing and exercise. Maybe I could become a personal trainer, or find some way to write for a living. That's what I'd love.
The problem I have with the whole "follow your heart/dream" theology is that it presumes we first "love" something, and then we "follow" it by devoting our time and energy to it. In my experience, more often it works the other way: we begin by devoting time and energy to something worthwhile (but not necessarily something we have "dreamed" about), and as a consequence we develop a *real* love for it. The "dreams" of what we can accomplish follow from the abilities and skills we have developed as a result of devoting ourselves to something. You can't truly *love* a job or a person or an activity unless you immerse yourself in it (or them), and make it a priority in your life. If you begin your career/relationship with the attitude that "this isn't going to be much fun, I wish I was doing something or with somebody else," then indeed it won't be fun and you'll be dreaming of being elsewhere. On the other hand, if you approach it with the desire to be the best accountant/spouse/garbage collector/pilates instructor you can be and learn as much as you can about it and become an expert, then you will derive joy from it. We love what we become good at, even if in the beginning we weren't sure we would ever love it.
ReplyDeleteNow, I'm not saying you should go overboard and work 80 hours a week to the exclusion of the other things in life that bring you happiness (although Deloitte will probably require this of you anyway). But don't short circuit your chance to develop a love for something you're clearly good at. You don't know that much about *real* accounting yet! :)
You're probably worried that your son will quit his accounting job. There's really no need to worry.
DeleteBoth of Emily's parents read this and both wanted/tried to comment on your comment, but neither were successful, so I can comment for them.
I agree with what you say, and I think what I believe is a mixture of both my post and your comment. We should find something we love, and most likely we will find it by actually doing it. At the same time, I believe that there are some things I could do that I wouldn't like, no matter how much I did them. So there's a balance between finding something you love to do and learning to love whatever it is you find.
Put another way: instead of wandering around "finding what you love," learn how to love what you find.
ReplyDeleteCraig, thanks for the post. As someone in a similar life position as you, I appreciate your perspective. I loved Lee's comment that we need to "learn to love what we find."
ReplyDelete