MSN Careers - Do What You Love and You'll Probably Starve - Career Advice Article

MSN Careers - Do What You Love and You'll Probably Starve - Career Advice Article

Megan sent me this article. She said it was to put a little fire in my day. It certainly did that. This article is almost all the things that are wrong with this country all rolled into one. It tells you not to do what you love, just find some position that you can lie low in and just get money. That, or start a business or support a franchise in something nobody cares about. This might get you money, but if that's all it takes to make you happy, you are a pathetic person. Never mind that starting a business is just as likely to fail as following what you love... if not moreso. Moreover, the author suggest that if you do start a business, make sure you don't innovate. Make sure you keep things exactly how they are right now, because they're just so successful when people aren't supposed to do what they love. This article actually reminded me a lot of the Republican national convention last night, where they stated things that might have had some point, but said that they were irrefutable, and nobody in their right mind would disagree with them. That kind of closed-mindedness and derision of people who hold differring views is detestable. If someone wants to start a janitor franchise or sell some unknown product, I say, more power to them, but I don't think it's good to tell people that it's bad to follow your dream because you might fail, so instead you should start a business, because although most businesses fail, yours won't. It's not only unethical, it's hypocritical. Not everyone wants to be an entrepreneur... and if everyone followed this man's advice, we'd be in trouble. Maybe I'm unamerican for not believing blindly in capitalism, but I don't think that money is the beat-all and end-all of life. That people are unable to follow their dreams doesn't mean that we should all forget about it unless we're "superstars"... it means that there is something fundamentally wrong with our current system... all the more reason to innovate. If we're going to all be entrepreneurs, maybe we should be entrepreneurs in the fields we love. Maybe we should have more independent music labels supporting art instead of capitalism, more environmental groups giving people chances to follow their loves, regional movie production groups, and anything else people can think of to want to devote their lives to. Maybe we need to make it so we can destroy the monolithic structures that keep people from following their dreams so we can actually have something that works out right for people. Oh, but that would make the world a better place, and we can't have that....