Its funny how i encounter numerous people in my life, and the number one question that strolls along is, "What are you going to do in life?"

A good majority of answers that I hear are jobs that gain a large profit, professions such as medical personnel, a lawyer, or some big shot CEO of a multi-billion dollar company. Then I ask, Why? Simple Answer: "Makes lots of money" or "Those fields are always Hiring". I mean it makes sense, Since we are bounded by money within our society, but hell would it really make anyone happy? Its essential, Yes, but is it true happiness? One can argue, it can buy you happiness, or it's a pathway towards it, or whatever.

Shouldn't someone find a job they enjoy as an individual? or just sacrifice all that in order to make a sufficient amount of money. I know there are people out there that have no choice and need to supply for their family.

I know a guy who wants to become a doctor who honestly believes people who are poor put themselves in that position and that they should be treated differently from the ones who work hard to earn their money such as a Doctor. Then I met people out of high school who want to become police officers because the "money" is good and honestly talk about how cool it would be to hold a gun and beat people down. Now what in the hell is that I ask. Answer: "I'm only kidding, but the money is good though". I Kid You not Ive asked a people who wants to become cops "Why a Police Officer?" Answer: "Protect and Serve". I say, "who does that line refer to?" Answer: "The Government". I just go speechless...I mean really...its the people.

I think that's how some people can enter mid-life crisis. That's just me.

I respect anyone that holds a job, hell if someone wants to be a mail man because he wants to travel and meet people, more power to you. That's the individual's passion then let it be.

Money or Passion? how would you go on living life?

Job you have no interest in, but makes good money to go buck wild with or a Job that your passionate about, that makes money just to get by.

Hey...someone's got to do those jobs...lol, and if they don't do it right they get shafted.

I do believe in strong motivation in just about everything I do in my life. I mean sure, it's not always going to be there. Doing a book report or writing an essay with a dead topic isn't usually fun. There are times when you gotta suck it up and just do it when you've got no motivation at all. Then there are those times when things come to you in the right way.

Like back in my final year of high school in math class we had to choose a picture and using all 16 graphing formulas we learned that year, we had to trace that picture, re-draw it and scale it up to a larger size. The task seemed daunting at first...but then I thought to myself, what if I took one of my favorite anime pictures and transformed that into a large picture full of graphing formulas. From that mindset I got a ton of motivation and I ended up with something like 250-260 math formulas to calculate my picture.

It's that kind of thinking I try to find in just about everything I do. Motivation plays a huge part. I don't think choosing a career is any different. It's nice to choose a career that pays a lot but if the job is just doing cashier work, I say forget it. It needs to be something motivating. I don't want to end up with the "omg I gotta go to work again" mindset after my second week at a part time job.

I tried to find a very well-paying job and something that would keep me motivated. My belief is, you tend to do better when you're highly motivated than when you're forced to do something you don't want. That's one of the "things in life" I learned. There are times it ends up not working but almost every time I run into something I can really get excited about I tend to do well in it.

I personally think that all kinds of jobs have to exist, we need everything, not only doctors or whatever, people make mistakes, they choose wrong carriers the whole time, only few follow their hearts. Don't only think about the money, because, when you search for a job, you want it in order to earn money, so which ever job you choose, you will still earn money, and alright there is a difference between doctors and teachers, but there is also a difference between people, maybe you will earn much money if you become a doctor, but will you like the job? will you wake up in the morning and tell yourself when you look at the mirror "one more beautiful day to work!" or "not again, I hate this job...". Think if it's worth it, all the years it's going to take, if you truly want it, not because of the money, people "think" that money is the key to happiness, but everybody has confirmed exactly the opposite over and over again and I can give numerous reasons.

A friend of mine, we finished upper secondary school together, she gathered 19,80, I don't know if it was her dream but she was worried sick and wanted very badly to study jurisprudence, I thought she would make it because she struggled very hard and was determined, she studied for a while until she couldn't take it anymore because there was so much to read, very stressful, and even with such high points, she chose to become a teacher instead. I know that, when there is a will, there is a way, and it seems like she didn't truly want it, because if she truly did, she would have become stricter and more determined to succeed.

Me? I have had a lot of dreams in the past, but I always liked one and only carrier much more and wished that I could become it, and here I am, becoming it, computer game developer, and I guess you all know that computers are based on maths, I always hated maths, but it didn't stop me, I had faith in myself, I have studied one whole year and am determined to continue, programming was the hardest part because it contains much logic and strategy, and I have written several tests (because I didn't understand in the beginning, it took me 6 months to finally comprehend what it was all about). Sometimes I don't understand why I even chose this program, but then I tell myself "you followed your heart", because I love computers and games, and I haven't regretted it. And from what I see, it's a very strong competetive industry, in order to gain much money, you need to create great games, everything is in your hands, yet I am positive.

On the other hand, I have another example, when my parents lost their job, my dad was depressed because he didn't earn money, so he thought about different kinds of job he could do, and so it hit his mind to become a taxi driver. It wasn't because it was his dream, money was the key, he wanted to drive the whole day and night in order to earn money. So he started to read, that was what he wanted to show us, that he truly wanted it, he read about 15 minutes and then he said he would continue later. He had a lot of tests to write, and guess how they went, straight to hell, he didn't pass even one of them. And when we asked him "why?", he replied " I went there with a black heart", so, the determination isn't that strong if you are after money, but when it comes to your will, it is unbeatable.

Money make things easier for you to live, when it comes to economy, that's all, but it's certainly not the key to happiness. Think about it, even with money in your pocket, would you truly be happy? say you would buy everything you ever wanted, would that make you happy? you don't have to be rich in order to buy clothes or furniture or whatever you want, of course it depends on how expensive they are, but still, if you save one or two months, I'm sure you still can buy that great jean you dreamed about. And it would also be worth it, because you would long after it, you would struggle in your job and so you would feel proud of yourself afterwards. There are no impossibilities, the reward is much bigger if you struggle in order to have something. On the other hand, if you have a lot of money, you just throw it here and there and you don't care, things don't mean anything, for everything in life you will say "I have cash". But money make no miracles occur, do they? when you are sick, you do need a doctor to take care of you, but you also need your family for support. When something goes wrong, you don't turn to your money for support, you turn to your friends or family or partner, to hear a kind word, feel a hug, kiss. Money gives you false happiness, happiness that lasts only for a certain time, will you spend every day buying everything there is in the shops in order to be happy? shopaholic as they say. Passion doesn't disappear that easily, do you give up on something you love? when you one day have kids, will you stop loving them after one month? you love them unconditionally till your last breath. Why do people even think about experiencing everything in life? because every experience in life is a succession, the moments, dreams, events... You will always earn money as long as you have a job, even if you spend or lose, you can always get it back, will you ever be able to get the time back? all those years that disappear just like that, someday you will wake up and ask yourself, what did I do this whole time? Money is a good servant, but a bad master. Someday in your life you will realize that there are much more important things. And to like your job is one of these things, since you will be there till you reach the age of 65. To fulfill a dream will be much more worth than just choosing a job that will give you most money. See life as an adventure with risks, that you have to go through trials, missions and problems in order to reach your goal, and till you reach your goal you will experience a lot of events, both bad and beautiful, life is not a dance on roses, it contains both bad and good staff, but everything is experience, we must make mistakes in order to understand what the right thing is, we learn that way, we can't learn 100% even if we are being told the consequences, we have to experience it, feel it.

Trust me as someone that has already had the chance to make the choice, you should go for passion. The money is nice, but it is far more important to enjoy the work than it is to get paid for working. If what you would like to do is get financially rich, all you need is a desire to do so. It does not matter what career you choose. If you are passionate about it, you will find yourself constantly receiving opportunities to work in an area of that career field where you can earn more money than ever before. A person that is passionate about his or her work always sees opportunities to advance with their employer, or start their own company, and they never have obstacles that deter them from their goals.

If all that you work for is the money, after a short period of time you become annoyed with the job. Workplace politics, or the boring tedium of daily management makes you physically ill. You skip work and do everything you possibly can to be elsewhere doing something else. Pretty soon you don't care anymore and there is not enough money being offered to make you care. Shortly after you stop caring, if you are not fired for being a bad employee, you quit working because you feel anything; even not having any money is better that what you are doing.

Trust me, choose passion and you will be happy and rich. Choose money and you will be miserable and poor.

It's hard to say. I'd rather have a pretty good paying job that makes me happy. I don't want anything in the extremes.

Remember to be happy and live life first, not work all day for money you cannot spend because you have no free time!

Haha you're right.. I envy people who are not only passionate about their work but also earn a lot from it just like my classmate, she plans to study engineering.. x__x My other cousins also chose medicine and engineering while I chose psychology. It's not much use here in our country since I don't think a lot of people can afford a psychologist, although when I graduate I can also become a human resource but I really want a job that makes a lot of money but I thought if I didn't want it then I couldn't do it properly and I wouldn't really be happy so I chose psychology. I'm not yet in college but right now I'm already deciding my future.. It's very scary x__x

Hard to find a job that you like and earn you alot of money...jobs like that usually means being illegal or to dangerous.

Lol when have you ever seen someone say "I want a dead end job that involves me being in a cubicle" or etc...

Passion.

If going to work was something I did just for the money and not because I wanted to do it, it'd be like a six year old, forced to go into elementary. They just don't want to do it, why sit in a class when you could be running around outside, doing what you want to be doing?

If you work for money, but hate your job:
Work = Jail, well, I suppose that Work pays you but you should understand the concept. You feel like you're bound down, you feel as if you're restrained there and can't do anything about it.

I myself want to be a game programmer, I love playing games and I've already done some programming. (Computer Science 10 Haha...) So I've only done it on a very basic level, but I've made commands and some complicated-ish NPCs for Maplestory. (that's pretty basic too... >_<;) In any case, I'm going in to it. Sure it'll pay a lot but I love programming. There'll be millions of problems in the code, and fixing them will be tough, it won't be fun and games but hell... the feeling I got when I solved a problem in my code for that NPC, it was an insanely nice rush. I think I enjoy programming overall, two years left of highschool to poke at Computer Science 20 and 30 though to see if it really is my passion.

All in all, if you're doing something you don't like doing, you're in the wrong place. Sure you might get money, but you'll get piles and piles of stress and I don't think things end very well. If you're doing a job and getting just enough to get by and you like your job, that should be good enough.

In my opinion are both important...
Money because often make we more happy in our life...
Passion because isn't convenient doing a job that isn't in our heart..

I'd prefer to choose what I want to do. Wile you might be doing a profitable job but if I don't like it... It'll be my mental state that in trouble :p But then again, we should also consider the reality; soometimes you must sacrifice a things to get other things. There are some jobs that mght match your interests... but not your stomach.

I cant say i would like to pursue a career for a passion. Maybe if i could get into video game development or veterninarian. However, if i do get into a career, it would most likely be to help out my family or to save up to buy a Shiba Inu.

I chose money.

I hate my life.

I already have a job I really can't stand for much longer. It's getting more difficult each time and sometimes I wonder if that day will be when I get beaten by some crazy patient (I work in a Clinic) because that has happened to some of my co-workers before. Bad thing is I need this job because I'm paying my college with it.

I'm studying an engineering in Computer Systems, something I really enjoy and would absolutely LOVE to have for a job for the rest of my life. Still two more years to go, but I know it'll be worth it at the end.

I made that career choice based on passion, but also is a lot more profitable work than the one I have now, so I think if you can have, if even a little, of both, you'll be happier and difficult times won't be extra-difficult.

Having a not-so-profitable job that you like to do is also a good choice, but you need to make back-up plans for when money runs short. Not an impossible thing to do.

You may first go for the money over passion, but I think eventually, you might just end up hating it. I think if your planning to do something for the rest of your life, you might as well go for your passion, who knows if you passionate about something, you might just end up making money out of it any way