Have you found contentment?
Are you content with what you do every day?
Day to day I don't find myself questioning what I do. I wake up, go to classes, do my homework and extracurriculars, go to the gym and go to bed. Turn up, get drunk, whatever, occasionally. All of this is fine to me. I'm good at what I do, almost perfectly cut out for MBB/IB/whatever I put my mind to. My problem is that when I look towards the future, the things I'm setting myself up to do seem relatively insignificant. I sense that the fulfillment I seek won't come from securing that offer.
What I really want to do is serve, ideally an 18x contract with the army. I don't know what it is, but I'm so drawn to the idea of contributing to the greater good. Yeah the army may be a weird way to scratch that itch but I'm not looking to argue about it.
I guess my question to all the young professionals on here would be about what you did to find your contentment. Does it come with work? Some other way? Have you ever felt as though you lacked it and did something drastic to find it?
Just spitballin here. Feel free to drop some wisdom on a young ape.
I think when I was in my 20s I spent a lot of time trying to find out how to live a significant life. I spent too much time trying to show everyone what I accomplished. I worked every day for that. At some point though the older I got, I enjoyed just living life day to day regardless of what happens. I’m much more flexible with my life on if my days go good or bad. I understand some parts of my life will bring significance and some parts of my life won’t. I have a much more wholesome approach on life. Sure having significance in things you do is important, however honestly just knowing my family is all around still and knowing I’m in good health is important too. I recognized as the years went on that I got many more years left hopefully. I can’t always be hustling, some times I need to take it easy as well. Also having balance is good. On my less significant days, I just follow my routine. On other days when I’m feeling up for a challenge, I’ll put forth the extra effort to accomplish what I set out to do. Life is a marathon not a sprint. And honestly the more challenges I’ve faced in my life, the more I appreciate the significance in just living a normal life and being thankful for what I got
And I’m not saying to let off the gas in life. Still work hard every day. But honestly some parts of your life may not bring much significance and that’s ok too. You got many more years man. Just make the significant times count in life when they come up
To answer your question more directly, yes I’ve found contentment..but it’s different than what I thought it would be when I was younger
I like that last part. Being a role model through your actions a good motto to live by
Sadly no. Or at least not yet.
You know, I feel very similar to the way you feel. I don’t come from a business/finance background. I actually studied STEM and the whole idea behind that was that I would give back to the world by working in science/tech. I actually remember my thoughts at 16: I used to say that technology had helped me so much that I wanted to work in tech to give back for everything that technology had given me.
I graduated with a STEM degree and then faced two paths. I could go on for a PhD and help humanity by doing research, or I could go to industry. I chose industry because doing a PhD is basically forcing yourself to be poor until your 30s which was not particularly attractive to me. So I went into industry. Got my first job as a software engineer. Then I realized a harsh truth. 99% of software jobs aren’t helping humanity. You are just building some tools that extract wealth in one way or another. It could be Facebook’s algorithms for maximizing depression, or it could be building an enterprise CRM tool. You are not pushing humanity, just making money. When I realized that my self-motivation disappeared. I was being bossed around with tight deadlines and for what? To essentially achieve nothing?
That’s what then drove to switch careers to finance. My rationale was that the reason I am wasting my talent programming some bullshit was that such bullshit was commanded by the shot callers. Therefore if I wanted to change that I should become a shot caller. And who calls the shots? Investors. Investors choose where money flows and therefore what gets built. So I pivoted into finance. I have actually done many things but now in corporate finance all I do is watch where the company’s money flows. I would probably be content if I was passionate about what the company did but honestly this company is not pushing humanity forward. It’s a very profitable business… but it won’t get us to mars. My idea is to eventually work in a company that is pushing the world. Like corporate finance in Tesla/SpaceX. Or in a start-up. And my ultimate goal would be to get into a VC fund where I become the ultimate shot caller. And indirectly pay for thousands of engineers by investing in the companies I believe will have an impact.
But well, those are the long term goals. I wonder if I achieve them I’ll just find some other reason to feel unfulfilled. Maybe I’ll get to the top and realize that helping humanity is not profitable and I end up investing in shitty disgusting companies like facebook (teen depression) or apple (slave labor) just because that’s what gets returns. We’ll see.
I think you just need to pick a career because YOU like it. I think there's a ton of people these days who pick careers for status or for influence or to change the world. I think when you drive your career off what others see, you're just going to feel your career is never good enough. The bar is just going to keep getting raised. I think it's great you have big ideas and wholeheartedly encourage you to dream big. I think everyone should. But you got to do it because it fits your skills and is what you like to do. Work will get tough at times, so it's gotta be something you feel proud of your self.
In terms of humanitarian stuff, none of these jobs are helping humanity in the way you think. Which there's nothing wrong with that, not everything needs to be motivated by humanitarian stuff. Have your career, but spend time outside of work helping others what ever that looks like to you. Mentor younger kids, help with homelessness, go to Africa and help causes over there. I get where you were coming from though, I was there when I was younger too. The older I got though, I realized no one in the outside world really knows what people do in finance. Even if you were to tell someone on the subway that you work for the best socially responsible fund that helps green initiatives that helps the world, they're gonna just gonna think you're some greedy banker. But once again, I encourage you to pursue it regardless of peoples thoughts if it motivates you. I just don't think people outside the finance realm know what anyone does. Just my 2 cents
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