[nazgul]

Is it better to choose a degree only for the high paying salary or a degree your somewhat passionate instead? Im not sure where to go in life or what degree to pursue and im leaning more on the degrees with the high salary even if im not passionate about them.

[Peregrine]

Passion is overrated. Talent is everything. Pick the path you have the highest talent in that also pays well.

Wall Street Playboys has more on this topic.

[Montrose]

https://youtu.be/CVEuPmVAb8o

Don’t follow your passion. Unless you are a woman, maybe. Women do that sort of things because they rely on men to run society.

[Barron]

Women want power over others, men want power over themselves. Following a perceived "passion" via an overpriced education often has the unintended side effect of restricting the power you have to dictate the path of your life.

[nazgul]

(05-31-2018 03:56 AM)Peregrine Wrote:  

Passion is overrated. Talent is everything. Pick the path you have the highest talent in that also pays well.

Wall Street Playboys has more on this topic.

Thanks for this.

[gework]

I only really found what I was passionate when I was about 25. I know a lot of people who were passionate about something (usually music) now they're depressed about everything.

Also most people don't do much or have much autonomy in their life. That's the cost of us all having what we want.

[Duke Castile]

(05-31-2018 03:56 AM)Peregrine Wrote:  

Passion is overrated. Talent is everything. Pick the path you have the highest talent in that also pays well.

Wall Street Playboys has more on this topic.

I disagree completely.

I have pursued endeavors that I had a lot of talent in but hated.

Society will tell you to do the thing you have talent in.

Your parents and family will assume you love it also when you may in fact hate it, but because you are good at it, and you don’t know what else to do, you do it also.

Over time you will come to resent, then hate this choice, and the thing you loved may by this time be gone because you’d have to start over with nothing in the way of experience.

I have a friend who was a heavyweight champion in boxing, pretty amazing considering he hated every second of it.

You have a powerful mind and if you have something you are passionate about do that.

You'll go further than you ever would doing something you hate because you’d be living a conflicted life where you like the results but hate what you do.

Don’t listen to anyone but yourself about this including me, do what makes you happy.

That’s the only thing that is really important, I just turned 40 a few days ago and I wish I could go back in time and tell myself that.

Be your authentic self.

Your loved ones want you to be happy also, they’ll come around.

If you could remove all expectations other people have put on you, then remove all expectations you have put on yourself (also because of what you think other people think or see; usually strangers you want to impress)

Then remove all the self limiting beliefs you put on yourself for no particular reason and you then ask yourself “what’s possible”?

Anything is possible.

You create your reality by how you view the world, and that reality exists soley based on the image you’re trying to project to other people.

Forget that image for a moment and just be you.

That image is bullshit.

It isn’t real.

Once you recreate that image without all the clever protections and barriers designed to keep you safe you’ll be able to create any reality you want if you can remember not to put limits on it.

[AceP]

(05-31-2018 04:32 AM)Fisto Wrote:  

(05-31-2018 03:56 AM)Peregrine Wrote:  

Passion is overrated. Talent is everything. Pick the path you have the highest talent in that also pays well.

Wall Street Playboys has more on this topic.

I disagree completely.

I have pursued endeavors that I had a lot of talent in but hated.

Society will tell you to do the thing you have talent in.

Your parents and family will assume you love it also when you may in fact hate it, but because you are good at it, and you don’t know what else to do, you do it also.

Over time you will come to resent, then hate this choice, and the thing you loved may by this time be gone because you’d have to start over with nothing in the way of experience.

I have a friend who was a heavyweight champion in boxing, pretty amazing considering he hated every second of it.

You have a powerful mind and if you have something you are passionate about do that.

You'll go further than you ever would doing something you hate because you’d be living a conflicted life where you like the results but hate what you do.

Don’t listen to anyone but yourself about this including me, do what makes you happy.

That’s the only thing that is really important, I just turned 40 a few days ago and I wish I could go back in time and tell myself that.

Be your authentic self.

Your loved ones want you to be happy also, they’ll come around.

I think this will come down to your background/capacity and goals.

If you really want to use your time to prioritize making money. Go for high-paying jobs.

If you're somewhat like me, I don't need to be a wallstreet or google cashcow employee rich but I 'already' have the ability to sustain myself sufficiently (via investments -- let passive income work for you) go traveling where I want, when I want.

I'd get a degree with the most horny college women as classmates, like nursing or languages. But hey I love being a tour guide anyways!

[therealpoder]

It depends on so many factors that there isn’t necessarily a right answer. It basically comes down to you. What are you passionate in and what do you want to do?

A lot of people’s dream job can be accomplished without a degree. You need to ask yourself “Do I really need a degree to do or learn X or can I accomplish it by self study?” If you are going to university in the United States, unless you get good scholarships, you will likely incur a lot of debt so you really need to ask yourself if you really need a degree to do what you want.

Is it possible to make your passion into a full time, decent paying job? This is possible with some jobs (e.g. teaching foreign languages online while traveling the world) while with other passions it’s more difficult.

You also have to consider do you have a source of side income. It’s easier to do you dream job when you have another, ideally, high paying, flexible job.

It depends on how you feel about money too. You may not need a lot of money to be happy. Some people are happy with little since they don’t have expensive hobbies or care about expensive possessions. On the other hand, you may want more money to have a higher quality of life.

What high income jobs are you considering? Are you sure that there isn’t a single one of those jobs that interest you? Are you sure that one of those jobs aren’t related in some way to a passion of yours?

Are you sure you like the jobs relating to your passions? Although you might like something, you may not necessarily enjoy the jobs related to your passionate.

If I could do it again, I would focus more on my passions.

However a happy medium is finding a decent, high paying flexible job to sustain yourself until you have the means to turn your passion until a full time, good paying job.

[not_dead_yet]

Why get a degree at all? Several blue collar professions pay well compared to the professional outcomes for some college degree.

And if you really have talent, you may not need a degree at all. Good musician? Make music, don't get a music degree. Same for writing, photography, etc.

Don't forget to minimize your educational spend unless it's a top 10 school.

[SeaFM]

There's an old saying.

If you do a job you like, you'll never work a day in your life.

Find what that is, and do it.

Even if you don't make ridiculous bank, you'll be happy, and that's all that matters because it's your life. You can focus on really important things like family, and the fact that in 100 years nobody will ever know or care who the fuck you were.

[Fortis]

How old are you? If you're under 30, I'm going to say that you probably don't even really know what you're passionate about but you just think you do. Make money when you are youthful and have surplus vigor. You can then bankroll your passions and really have fun.

[BlueMark]

As others have mentioned, focusing on passion tends to be a trap. Instead go for something you don't hate, pays well, and that you have a talent for. You'll have an easier time exploring your passions when you're established in a career that pays the bills, isn't mind-numbing, and has good work-life balance.

[SeaFM]

(05-31-2018 06:40 AM)Fortis Wrote:  

How old are you? If you're under 30, I'm going to say that you probably don't even really know what you're passionate about but you just think you do. Make money when you are youthful and have surplus vigor. You can then bankroll your passions and really have fun.

Approaching late 40's if that question was for me.

I was one that struggled to find my calling, and when I did it paid ok, but by no means would anyone confuse me with a baller.

[Fortis]

I was talking to OP, no worries.

[zoom]

I would choose passion. But why you do need a degree for something you are passionate about?

[polar]

If you're good at something, you can learn to like it.

If you have a predisposition for something, you'll get good at it faster.

Is the OP considering medicine (almost a decade of schooling), a STEM undergrad, etc. vs a degree in social sciences, music, or art? Different career paths with different experience curves and different payoffs.

Without more details from OP, we'll keep talking about generalities.

[Sooth]

I remember Aaron Clarey saying no one gives a fuck about you until you're at least 30.
I'm well under that but going bald and grey so I can pass as 35 and what he says is true.

A uni degree is only good for if you want to get paid by someone to do some thing. If you see yourself working for yourself then it's a waste of time.

The networking is key. If I had my time again at uni I would spend it all networking.

It's not what you know it's who you know.

[nola]

I think if someone is going to go to college for anything other than a STEM field I think you're better off first investing in a trade school then funding a non STEM education with your high paying trade job. At least you'll have a fall back plan. You can also join the military reserves in the US and take a job that translates to an additional trade skill or compliments your trade education.

Although I studied a STEM field in college I took my first year 2nd semester off and completed a 7 month commercial diving and underwater welding trade school plus had joined the reserves for a medical rating right before entering college. I had high paying jobs during college making more money than most people in their 30's and 40's just working part-time during the school year and full-time in the summer. I also got reserve drill pay + benefits + tuition assistance so I never had any college debt, ever. One year in undergrad I had made enough money the year before + not having crippling tuition cost I was able to complete two additional programs in welding and diesel mechanics. with extra cash I was able to fund extra foreign language tutoring through my entire time in college.

So before I was done with college I already had 3 solid trade skills with certificates, licenses and experience, an EMT license in two states, no debt, no insurance cost because I was on tri-care, was close to being fluent in a foreign language and access to tax free shopping on the base. I also got deployed one year in college which I thought would be a set back adding a year to school but later found out being a veteran also gives an additional set of advantages which includes a lot of random discounts, giving future employers tax breaks and govt contract bidding advantages. I also came home with a stock pile of tax free money I made on my first deployment which I was able to invest.

Take advantage of being young and having the energy to have really long days and needing little sleep, the older you get the harder it gets to maintain that level of energy. Don't party like a frat boy, there will be plenty of time to party hard the rest of your life.

I still fucked myself over though for a few years by getting married and divorce raped before age 26 women have a magical way of fucking up even your best life decisions. They'll always get their cut of a well managed previous life. They're always strong feminist independent can do women until they stand before the judge then they become feeble, delicate flowers that need your money to survive.

[Ringo]

I went into my field of journalism because I've always received a lot of positive reinforcement from everyone around me, and to some extent I know that I'm talented in it. School and work proved very different from what I expected and I was not a happy guy.

What I failed to see but now understand, is that your talent towards something is actually made up of multiple subtalents, if that makes any sense. As in, as a journalist, you have to be interested in learning all the time, you have to be observing and inquisitive, you need to learn how to connect dots, you must understand how to be persuasive and tell a story worth listening to, among others. I failed to see that those natural subtalents could allow me a career in many different fields while doing many different jobs.

I feel like the 20's are an age to explore the fields in which you can apply these natural subtalents into things you are passionate about and have the potential to be lucrative. At 20-something, your cost of life is low and your responsibilities are, in general, inexistent. If you play things right, you can then spend your 30's making your work profitable.

That's what I'm doing. Maybe I'm wrong?

Where I grew up the only way to, in your 20's, make the kind of money that would allow you to be set for life, either directly or through investments, is as a pro athlete or entrepreneur. The former requires a life time of training, considering that you found whatever sport you're doing at a young enough age; the latter would require a level of knowledge on many subjects that I feel I simply don't have.

Having said that, I think the biggest trap is to go into something that is lucrative to make bank, even though you don't like it, and find yourself stuck there years later because, well... life happened - debt, family needs support, unexpected kids, health issues, etc.

[General Stalin]

You don't need to go to school to learn about something you love.

You go to school to get a piece of paper that tells potential employers that you are a candidate worth considering.

If you want to learn about something you are passionate about then just pick up a book or open a browser. We live in the best time there ever was to self-educate with a vast and seemingly unlimited amount of great information right at our fingertips for free.

Even college is overrated and not the most efficient use of your time as far as learning something goes... but it's that piece of paper at the end of the road that is the key.

[PainPositive]

(05-31-2018 04:32 AM)Fisto Wrote:  

(05-31-2018 03:56 AM)Peregrine Wrote:  

Passion is overrated. Talent is everything. Pick the path you have the highest talent in that also pays well.

Wall Street Playboys has more on this topic.

I disagree completely.

I have pursued endeavors that I had a lot of talent in but hated.

Society will tell you to do the thing you have talent in.

Your parents and family will assume you love it also when you may in fact hate it, but because you are good at it, and you don’t know what else to do, you do it also.

Over time you will come to resent, then hate this choice, and the thing you loved may by this time be gone because you’d have to start over with nothing in the way of experience.

I have a friend who was a heavyweight champion in boxing, pretty amazing considering he hated every second of it.

You have a powerful mind and if you have something you are passionate about do that.

You'll go further than you ever would doing something you hate because you’d be living a conflicted life where you like the results but hate what you do.

Don’t listen to anyone but yourself about this including me, do what makes you happy.

That’s the only thing that is really important, I just turned 40 a few days ago and I wish I could go back in time and tell myself that.

Be your authentic self.

Your loved ones want you to be happy also, they’ll come around.

If you could remove all expectations other people have put on you, then remove all expectations you have put on yourself (also because of what you think other people think or see; usually strangers you want to impress)

Then remove all the self limiting beliefs you put on yourself for no particular reason and you then ask yourself “what’s possible”?

Anything is possible.

You create your reality by how you view the world, and that reality exists soley based on the image you’re trying to project to other people.

Forget that image for a moment and just be you.

That image is bullshit.

It isn’t real.

Once you recreate that image without all the clever protections and barriers designed to keep you safe you’ll be able to create any reality you want if you can remember not to put limits on it.

This is very inspirational. Thank you and happy birthday Fisto.

In additionr to what Fisto said I think there can also be a middle ground.

For me, when I got a job in something I had a passion for it took the fun out of it. Working on cars is a good example of this. I hated working in a shop but loved working on my own trucks and cars. I got to do a frame off restoration of a 69 GTO for a friend and he paid me good money to do it for him. I even hated that.

On the other hand I like to bartend and consult for nightclubs. I love doing it because I'm both passionate and good at working with people, helping them get a handle on their business, and reducing the pain and stress of trying to keep a failing business afloat.

Finding something you enjoy and are good at is very hard to do. Try a lot of things but don't be like me and hop from profession to profession for too long. Mastering your craft is important. Being a Jack of all trades but a Master of none sucks. I wish you luck.

[roid]

This kind of question never ceases to amaze me. It is like being passionate will actually translate to being poor af. Well then, probably, I would take riches than poverty all the time. It is very common sense.

[debeguiled]

I mostly agree with Fisto.

Only will add that passion vs. talent is a false dichotomy.

You have to factor in your conscience somewhere, and doing what you think is the right thing to do has a lot of power, and it can not only make a job that isn't your passion bearable, but it can make you stick to your passion longer than you would otherwise.

Factor it in. I have seen a lot of people follow their passion and end up in an insulated little world of fellow enthusiasts who seem pretty self absorbed. Passion itself isn't enough, you have to be doing something that you believe is a solution on some level in this, our world of problems.

You are still making the same choice, but your conscience is a force multiplier that changes everything.

[General Stalin]

I think the important part to realize here is that doing what you are passionate about and doing what you are good at or can make good money at are not at all mutually exclusive. You can pursue your passion(s) while also doing something completely different as a means to make money to pay your bills and build your lifestyle. Your life is not defined by how you make your income, unless of course you want it to be.

For example: I work in IT. I'm not "passionate" about computers, networks, security, or any of that shit. That said, what I do pays okay and I don't hate it. when I'm not working, I make and record music, play guitar, shoot guns, go hunting, travel, etc. All things that I love.

Just because you can't make money doing it doesn't mean you can't pursue it.