My Thoughts on Career: Find What You Love

Without the Bachelorette, some of you may wonder what on earth I could possibly write about.  Contrary to what you may believe, I have more thoughts swirling in my head beyond reality TV.  I now present one of those thoughts.

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.

So we see that one of the challenges of life is to have the courage to pursue our dreams, no matter how unlikely they may seem or how difficult they are to achieve.  A book that everyone should read is The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (the introduction to the book is incredible).  Admittedly, it's a strange book, but it has this same message that I'm trying to convey: follow your dreams.  That's a really cliche phrase, and I believe a lot of us dismiss it in the name of common sense.  But what we tell ourselves is common sense and practicality is often the fear of failure, and according to The Alchemist, that is the one thing that makes our dreams impossible to achieve.

"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.