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Originally Posted by Memphis1979
When I was still in grade school, we all had to talk to a our Guidance Councillor about what we wanted to do with our lives.
She did the "If you had a million dollars, what would you do?" question. Meaning, whatever you'd do, if you didn't have to worry about money, what would you do.
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Frequently I repeat this thought-experiment, now as a mid-career professional. And my answer is that given a hypothetically limitless amount of money, I would be doing essentially the same thing that I presently do, but with less bureaucracy and in a much nicer location. I would not change the essence of the work itself.
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Originally Posted by stan4
I don't understand. How do you know whether or not someone is going into something because they love doing it or because they want the money?
And no amount of 'passion' is going to pay your bills. So money has to be some consideration here. Not to mention being a productive, tax-paying citizen.
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Very true. But somehow we’re obsessed with the idea that passion and money are necessarily mutually exclusive. Yes, many people seek to become medical doctors because of the prestige and the money. But this doesn’t mean that they’re greedy bastards with no regard for assuaging human suffering or advancing medical knowledge. Maybe in fact they do in fact profoundly care about treating disease and alleviating pain, and the thrill of actually curing somebody and making his/her life better. But they also want to earn good money and to be highly regarded in their communities.
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Originally Posted by smartalx
Hard work and education aren't all that is necessary for success. Good luck accounts for the majority of your success. Sure it's hard work to create a fortune 500 company. But it takes luck to get the opportunity to combine your hard work with the recipe for success. Why even being born with the right parents and into the right home with the right personality is nothing but luck. "Good genes" is nothing but luck!
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Indeed. Many will work hard, but only some fraction will succeed. The point, however, is that success is more likely to come to those who actually do work hard, than to those who do not.
We need to realize that success isn't an absolute win vs. lose. Success is a graduated scale. There is something like partial success, where the person in question is not preeminent in his or her field, but is competent and reasonably well remunerated.
Taking smartalx's point further, one could argue that the propensity to work hard is itself a personality trait, and therefore something that's inherited - a matter of luck! People inclined towards striving and tenacity are that way because, well, because of genetic luck! Is anyone then responsible for his or her actions? Can any causal relationship be formed, between the person in his essence, and what he achieves?
It's a fascinating philosophical discussion, but in practical terms it rapidly becomes untenable. We have to have shortcuts, heuristics. And the most obvious shortcut is reliance on market-forces. That level of pay is appropriate, which the market would pay. Unfair? Yes! Myopic? Yes! But is there any serious alternative?
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