Most of us will never have a great career.
Good, I have your attention now.
For the moment, let’s entertain this contrarian and presumably unpopular opinion. And yes, it is a bit cruel to bring this up weeks after graduation, but it is the unfortunate truth.
For years, our peers and teachers have forced and implanted in our brains the grand delusions of illustrious careers. Add our youthful pretense for invincibility, and you have the stereotypical college mindset: I will be the next great leader/business mogul/author/tech company co-founder/whatever if I think hard enough and believe that I can do it.
Unfortunately, one can see that this mindset leaves a lot to be desired, especially the submitting-to-reality part.
Idealism is not the problem. I am of the strong belief that society needs the starry-eyed idealists who can envision what the world should be instead of what the world actually is. Idealism in itself is not the issue, but the starry-eyed idealism is not enough to guarantee a great career. We have to act on our convictions and passions. And that’s when the uphill battle begins. Few of us, however, are willing to embark on the truly difficult road that career path requires. Oh yes, the road is hard and soul-crushing. The perky idealism we once had does not quite fit in with this daunting road ahead.
Why though? What’s stopping us from achieving it?
The oh-so-obvious answer is perfectly clear: ourselves. We want but are unwilling to act. We fail to dedicate ourselves to the consequences of having a great career — the long hours, the sleepless nights, the missed birthdays and perhaps the postponement of starting a family. We fear the known uncertainties. We make excuses. We realize that we didn’t want the great career enough. More importantly, we fail to go all in to pursuing our passions.
This article is not meant to ward people off from thinking grandly or to induce post-graduation stress. This article is meant to empower the future leaders of the world that we could be.
We are capable of so many things in our modern age. Realize all of the resources and information at our fingertips. Appreciate the great education that was granted to you for the past few years. But America does have its perks and hopes.
The belief that we can achieve great and amazing things is still alive and well, but the fear to chase after these passions gets the best of us. But it does not have to be this way. There’s still a chance to have a great career.
Economist Larry Smith of TedxUW echoes the fact that most people will inevitably fail to pursue their passions and fail to have a great career. The talk is blunt and rightfully so. Despite the harshness of his message, Smith ends on an empowering and uplifting note.
After offering a litany of excuses the average person makes about pursuing his or her passions, Smith concludes with certainty, “Those are the reasons why you will fail to have a great career.” But then he pauses, looks up at the dimly lit audience and utters the word “unless” before nodding his head and ends hthe speech.
There is hope in his words. All is not lost. You can postpone those graduation nerves for the moment. We do have the ability to pursue our passions because of that “unless.”
Most people do fail to have a great career, but it doesn’t have to be this way. Failing to achieve our passions is not predetermined. You can beat the odds and have a truly great career. In order to do that you have to ask yourself, “What is my ‘unless’?”
[Michael Beato is a UF economics junior. His columns appear on Tuesdays. A version of this editorial ran on page 6 on 5/13/2014 under the headline "For students, action must follow idealism for future vocation"]
