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Are You Doing What You Love
to Do?
A long time ago, when I was going through a tragedy in my
family, I sought the advice of a professional psychologist to
help me through that rather rough period in my life. During one
of several sessions we were discussing what I did for a living.
At the time I was employed by a major television network as News
producer. I didn’t particularly like the way the television news
business was going, as it seemed that sensationalism was more
important than a true reporting of the story. I was expressing
my feelings to the psychologist and he said to me:
"The job
really doesn’t matter. What matters is what we do with the
proceeds of our labor, how we spend our off time."
He
was saying that what we did for a living didn’t matter. We could
put up with the crap, the internal politics, the back biting,
ignorant bosses, lousy supervisors, even to the point of
completely being at odds with the direction of the company that
employed us. None of that mattered as long as we used the money
we made from our salary and when we were off, we then spent time
doing what we really enjoyed.
As
I was suffering the loss of someone very close at the time, I
honestly did not give this much thought. At the time! But a
little later as my grief started to subside and things at the
network continued to go in what I will call a different
direction, I started thinking about what this psychologist had
said. And it was then I thought to myself, 'Boy was that crappy
advice or what'?
I
couldn’t imagine working for another 20 years in a situation I
didn’t like. I hope that ‘shrink’ went out of business, because
he could have ruined a bunch of lives with advice like that.
One of the nice things about being a television producer is that
you have access to a lot of famous and successful folks. It
wasn’t too long before I was sitting down to an interview with
the very talented Mr. George Burns. It was during that
conversation that I asked him for advice to young and upcoming
performers. His response has resonated with me ever since.
Mr. Burns said: "Find something you love and do that. If you
love it, you’ll naturally do it very well. And if you do it
well, the money will naturally follow." That advice has never
failed me to this day.
It
wasn’t too long after that I had to make some decisions about my
future. Would I stay in the nice safe warm job that I hated, or
try something new, bold, daring and exciting, that I loved
doing? Oh, I had obligations, children, home etc., so I couldn’t
just dump the job (which paid fairly well, mind you) and do
something new. No, I had to start part time on my own, and work
up to doing my own thing with my own company on a full time
basis. The short side of this is that Mr. Burns was right. I
followed his words of wisdom and it has paid off handsomely over
the years. And I am here to tell you I am not the only one. In
the years since, I have talked with hundreds of successful
people and they all tell me the same thing.
You may have heard this before from people. Some say: follow
your dream. Others call it following your passion. You can call
it anything you want to call it, but the principle is still the same.
"Find something you love - and do that. If you love it, you’ll
naturally do it very well. And if you do it well, the money will
naturally follow."
Here’s another way to say it,
Success is not the key to happiness.
Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing,
you will be successful. - Herman Caine Former CEO Godfather's
Pizza
I believe that both George Burns and Herman
Caine know of what they speak. After all, look at the success
that both of them have made of their lives.
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