Possibly the Ultimate Advice on Career

A friend Gad asked me for general advice regarding which course he should choose and which university should he enter when he gets to Melbourne. He was one of the many students who is struggling between choosing the university course of his passion, or the university course which is more practical. The advice that I gave him was something that I had not thought of while I was choosing my course, and after I gave him my advice, I realised that I myself am not doing the right course.

I'm sure many people whom we have seeked advice regarding this matter, people such as our teachers, elder siblings or cousins, our parents, will tell us that we have to choose something that is practical. What do they mean by practical? Well, i'm sure many will agree that "practical" in this case involves achieving a degree of certainty in earning enough money for a comfortable or more than a comfortable living in the future. If this is the definition of "practicality" when it comes to choosing our uni course, then I urge those who are still choosing their course not to take this into consideration at all.

Most parents who read the last sentence will probably go "This stupid boy who still hasn't gone past his twenty years on earth doesn't know the crap that is oozing out of the hole in his face". True, I may still be too immature or inexperienced with life to have my say on this, but the reason to my conclusion has nothing to do with the belief that "Money isn't everything" or "Money doesn't bring happiness" or "Not all our goals in life are to earn millions of dollars". Money is bleeding important. It might not bring happiness, it might not be our goal to have enough money to wipe our asses with 100 dollar bills, but it is bleeding important. From the simple oats that I eat for breakfast to the mansion that Donald Trump lives in, it all involves an exchange of money. The course that we choose however, has very little to do with it.

The statement "Many millionaires out there don't even graduate from high-school" is a cliche, but the answer to how they do it is not. For numerous times my housemate has told me about the millionaires in Indonesia who have not even been to high-school, who started off as labourers and some how worked their way to riches. After that, we'd wonder about how they did it, and then go on to question how relevant the things we learn in our Bachelor of Commerce course, the most "practical" of courses is to getting rich. Then I realised that this most "practical" of courses will not ensure any security or comfort at all.

The Bachelor of Commerce course, and many other courses available are teaching us how to be employees. True, with a B.Commerce degree it might be easier for us to get a job after we graduate, but will it ensure us comfort and security in a longer run? Will the things we learn equip us with the knowledge to earn enough money for us to lead satisfying, let alone extravagant lives? I don't believe so. True, it will provide us with a good "Launchpad", but what about after-launch? I believe that it is not what we know, but how we use what we know that will make us successful. We can be successful if we correctly use what we learned from a B.Commerce course, from a B.Arts course, from Kindergarden, and especially from life itself. We must know what we possess that others don't, what we know that others don't, and who we know that others don't. In economic terms, we must know our Comparative Advantage, then apply it to earning our comfort.

A friend Dave told me about an aunty who had a degree in literature and was doing well in the business realm because of her ability in writing and understanding people. Dr. Phil (yes, I am a fan) says that "To become self-adequate we should know what we can do that others can't and what our characters possess that makes us unique instead of copying someone who is deemed as successful". In Robin Ryan's book "Winning Resumes", he says that " If we want our resumes to be noticed, we must flaunt our assests!" So instead of trying to obtain the assets of "successful" or "practical" people, like what we are trying to do in "practical" courses, shouldn't we be taking up courses that we are passionate about, and then flaunt the assets of our passion?

Strange how all the career advisors I went to never told me this...