Was given this question the other day and found it extremely fascinating peoples responses. If you were to restart your life path, choosing a specific career or lifestyle regardless of salary/cost; what would it be and why?
Curious to gauge what the WSO community would do if we weren't all hardos.
| +95 | Are you “less ambitious” for having long term goals outside of NYC | 24 | 19h | |
| +43 | Interviews Are So Fake | 27 | 3h | |
| +33 | 2024 UK Election - Tories finished? | 21 | 3s | |
| +29 | Being Christian in investment banking | 14 | 1d | |
| +23 | Non-Competes Banned | 21 | 1h | |
| +22 | Sabotaging Peers to Get Ahead? | 34 | 4d | |
| How do I become Sigma | 13 | 5h | ||
| +19 | Moelis has the cutest Analysts? | 4 | 23h | |
| +18 | Best NYC neighborhood for single 30M | 12 | 2d | |
| +16 | Underage intern, drinking? | 7 | 1d |
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Navy seal. Mad respect to them. Pushing physical and mental boundaries to new levels is pretty sick.
Yeah but you have to be a hired assassin for US business interests. Just do triathlons or something if you want that.
Navy Seal so I can be a hired assassin for US business interests. Better yet Delta Force.
Dancer. Nothing better than a guy with good moves in the club
Sexy.
Student, not in the typical sense of the word. Like truly a student, trying to research something to make a difference. Sort of like a PhD student but without all the BS and not starving.
Professional gamer
Professional Streamer - you get paid more and its less stressful
being on a team though has some value. Tough debate between gamer & streamer. Ideally, be on a good team that leaves you time to stream haha
Pick any life path.....
"Professional gamer"
"Professional streamer"
Hayzoos christ millenials are a pathetic breed.
Always thought being a firefighter was the coolest job. Grew up with lots of friends dads as fire fighters and hung around the fire house as a kid. Work three days hanging with your buddies then get four days off. Aside from staying in shape and being active you're helping people while kinda getting an adrenaline rush. Everyone loves firefighters. Depending on the state you can get paid well into the six figures.
F1 racer, convince my parents to let me do karting at a young age and work my way up. I'd be the savior of the Haas F1 team.
Don't pull a Ricardo and sell your soul
Don't pull a Grosjean and be terrible either haha
Kardashian
Do you think they’re truly happy?
Asking the real questions here. This is something I'm asking myself more and more often. What's the point of having so much if you are still not content?
Not to belittle anyone's wealth by any means. But I do wonder how many of them are happy? I've been thinking to myself, if I'm not happy with my low 6 figure comp as a single guy, will I be suddenly happier if I made mid 6 figures a decade from now? I somehow doubt that beyond the initial euphoria it would add much value. Have to find things you truly enjoy outside of work & the benefits it gives you. Just some random musings
massage therapist for professional models
in case you like the Brazilian version better ;)
and once you find that dream job, it ain't all you thought it would be....
so you change your job. Jump around. But then, even that job isn't perfect...
Wish I would've taken some time before college to serve in the merchant marine. Work on boats and see the world for a few years before settling into a career path. Will definitely encourage my kids to do something adventurous before starting college/career.
Also, complete different end of the spectrum... would enjoy pursuing a PHD in economics. Plan on auditing a ton of classes later in life
I have half a dozen or so buddies who went to maritime acadamies, and trust me it is not that great. You spend most of your time in a room the size of a compact car or making sure shit doesn't catch on fire.
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>I have half a dozen or so buddies who went to maritime acadamies, and trust me it is not that great. You spend most of your time in a room the size of a compact car or making sure shit doesn't catch on fire.
And that's worse than being a spreadsheet warrior?
maineiac42
"You spend most of your time in a room the size of a compact car or making sure shit doesn't catch on fire."
Dude, it sounds just like finance to me!
(tiny office, putting out fires...)
I have been looking into a PHD in Econ but I don't think I am nearly smart enough to get into MIT or Stanford. My professor last year has his econ PHD from the econ faculty at MIT and he still amazes me with his knowledge to this day.
Also, PhD in Econ is really more like a PhD in Mathematics. What you enjoyed in undergrad econ has very little relation to PhD Econ.
Reptile breeder. Hated them when I was younger but grew to be fond of them and fascinated by them. Hope to own a few in the future and become a small-time breeder in the near future.
mercenary/contractor (if you catch my drift). all the badassery of the military while still being self employed. the world's got a lot of bad guys, I'd like to do my part
freesurfer - get paid to travel all over the world doing what I love
beyond that, I'm really happy doing what I do
Academi and Triple Canopy actually pay really well if you have the right background. I’ve read former SOCOM (Army SF, Navy SEAL, Marine Raider, AF CCT) officers can get paid $300k starting.
exactly. I used to work at a country club and the happiest dude I knew there was a contractor. made a killing, worked maybe 2-4 months out of the year and just chilled the rest of the time.
sounds just amazing
both options sound awesome!
> the world's got a lot of bad guys, I'd like to do my part
Depends what side you're on...
> “Nothing is easier than to denounce the evildoer; nothing is more difficult than to understand him.” ― Fyodor Dostoevsky
hence why I said contract work. if you work for the military, you have to take any job. I could take a contract only if I wanted. independence is key
but yeah, I don't wanna start an argument about a hypothetical that won't ever come to fruition, I can't even bring myself to kill some of the spiders in my house
Putting aside the unrealistic ones (e.g. pro athlete), I'd be interested in learning another language, and going to work for the CIA and/or in an embassy in a foreign country for a while. Then could come back and work in politics, or teach that language, or serve as a consultant to businesses trying to invest in that country.
That sounds awesome. I’m an undergrad and 90% of me wants to do finance but the other 10% wants to do something similar to what you described.
Working in the agency sounds very interesting. Then I realized a lot of it is not nearly as exciting as I previously thought and it’s largely a lonely life until you’re an office drone, where you can have a family. But the latter negates the purpose of working there
Trader. Ever since I was a little kid, all I ever wanted to do was provide liquidity,
Instagram model
> Instagram model
Easy but empty...you'll likely end up addicted to heroin. We all need to do something hard.
Yeah, totally dude. I'm sure your predictions on the outcomes of everyone's lives are always spot on. Keep it up!
I got something hard for these Instagram models to do, if you catch my drift
Law Enforcement Officer.
ha ha.....I've got numerous friends who are LEO's and we rag them constantly like that. I wouldn't want to be the guy camping out and writing speeding tickets and shit as that is not where true policing is done.
Florist I came close to quitting it all. Shop next to the tube station was vacant - called up the rail network to enquire about the lease. It wasn't on the market yet - told me to call back in a few months. Few months later the spot was taken over... By a florist... It wasn't me. Basterds.
How are the margins in this business? It also seems tough as inventory needs to turn over pretty quickly. The plus side is being around flowers all day, probably as relaxing as it will get for being a small business owner.
It's extremely tough - the margins come from getting a couple of corporate contracts around your area to replace the flowers every week. The odd event inquiry. All of that requires you to step outside of your shop to achieve. The footfall at the station is roughly 5m people a year going through it and there was no flower shop anywhere around, so it was a great spot in terms of just traffic, with a lot of residential using the station, thus buying from you for their own home. You then need to wake up at the crack of down to go to the flower market for professional near the airport, just a 30 minute ride from the shop, but it's a blooming early ride. You then need to keep it open long enough to capture the city workers coming back around 7PM which means this is a pretty intense job if you are going to run it on your own. Hiring is a bit of an issue as well given they are not high salaried workers and turnover will be high unless you can lock it down a bit better. Then you get taxes for the shop which I had calculated to be around 4k a year (forgot exactly what I had in my business model at the time). With rent and business rate taxation I was looking at 14k if I remember correctly. That's a shit load of flowers to sell!!!
But yea - long story short is someone else took the lease and I got passed up on it
Diplomat / astronomer would have all been dope careers with some great life experiences
Catholic priest.
The more I learn about the world in my business career, the less I want any part of it....at least from the traditional sense. Would love to withdraw from it altogether, not a career switch to something easier or more humanitarian but a full withdrawal from even participating in any aspect of the rat race whether it is trying to earn more money or becoming a more respected artist or whatever.
“My Uncle runs a camp for kids who are about to be molested. Says he’s never worked a day in his life. The pay’s not so good, but the benefits...”
Great joke from Anthony Jeselnik. I'm a big fan!
I will also say that I met Pope Francis a few years back at a smallish (70-100 people) gathering and got to spend ~1 minute with the man. He had a few security personnel with him. Many people brought him gifts. Some of the gifts looked tacky, like a Rangers Jersey with his name on it, while others looked like valuable jewelry/artwork. He looked really unimpressed with the items and had his security personnel casually place them in a bag without much thought.
I thought to myself, it has to be a new level of being to simply disregard items of this world. I later read that he was gifted a Lamborghini which he auctioned off with the proceeds going to charity.
Very cool. Stuff like that is really amazing!
I've also had encounters with priests and nuns where they are completely unconcerned about your position in life. They are not impressed and just don't care. For example, the new priest that I mentioned coming over to my house never once asked what I do for a living. He asked about my interests and wanted to know me as a person but never asked about occupation. Normal people ask in about 30 seconds of meeting them.
Long story but another time, I stayed with a religious order for a full week. Nobody asked what I did for a living. They asked about where I live, my family, interests, etc, but could care less about occupation. It feels so great to be judged just as a person rather than someone sizing you up right away to see if you're worth talking to. They just operate on a whole different level than most of us.
Fitness youtuber. Stay fit all year around, get hot chicks, travel as much as I want, and spew rudimentary fitness knowledge onto 9-5'ers.
I’d pursue music whether it be playing the piano or music engineering. Either way I believe I would have enjoyed that path the most.
I think the movie business is fascinating. Screenwriting would be a lot of fun as would bring the head of content at an innovative studio like Netflix.
Speaking of which, have any of you seen Netflix’s culture slide deck? I personally think it sounds fantastic but I can see how it’s polarizing.
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Study philosophy and/or political theory and publish thought provoking works with the potential to change the world
I've thought about this too. I'd love to write a book titled, "How to Change a Culture" and do deep dives into the changes of cultures over time, ie. Germany in the late 1800s to the 1950s to today. Russia, China, America, etc have all had drastic changes in culture.
I think it may be pointless though. Even if it was a thought provoking study, it would never compare to what Kim K wore to dinner last night and what actress broke up with her actor boyfriend. Society doesn't care, by and large, about life.
That sounds like an interesting read! Yeah I commented somewhere else the same sentiment as it become very apparent to me recently, most people just do not give a shit about politics or philosophy. Their lives are just too good to think deeper.
I would do 1st year IB analyst for the rest of my life
Would've stuck with boxing. Probably could have been a middling professional that no non-avid boxing fan would have ever heard of. Would've been a helluva lot of fun to have fought in front of legitimately big crowds, plus the spartan lifestyle that comes with training is very fulfilling.
I was awful at boxing in college but there's nothing like the first round bell and having no where to hide, and having to go take care of business ... best adrenaline rush I ever had.
Pro Surfer / Photographer with a trust fund, of course.
I know a dude who fits this description to a T
Same, his dad's name even starts with the letter T. Out in Laguna Beach just enjoying life.
I would be a Real Estate Developer.
Can someone explain why they're so popular? Are they just charismatic or more interesting than other similar shows?
I want to work at the Goldman Sachs.
I would study data analytics and social engineering to create a system that allows for targeted social manipulation through Facebook and other social sites.
Hopefully I could then produce an approach I could sell to political machines and special interests to control certain subsections of society, all while giving them the guise of "free will."
Basically I want to create a Cambridge Analytica that falls within "terms of service"
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