Profession

The activities you engage in that support civilization’s structure.

There’s a woman who works in a diner who says she wants to be rich. A gazillionaire her age stops in one day and tells her he’s tired of being rich. He’s going to give it all up and move somewhere warm and spend the rest of his days fishing for swordfish like Hemingway. She begs for his pile of cash so she can taste the good life before she dies. The man liked the woman, was a little drunk from the meal and the conversation, and so he decided he had nothing to lose. He signed over his entire estate to her on the spot, save for a house in the Caribbean, a large fishing boat, and modest monthly stipend. The woman lived a life of luxury for a decade, spending all the money until she got so fat she needed surgery to keep her alive. She survived, but spent all the rest of her money trying to look young and thin again. The man went on to build another fortune in fishing charters and feeding the village where he lived.

Profession can be a job, an identity, or something in between. But your profession must always support something other than you. What that ends up being depends on what you enjoy serving. Let’s read that again. What you end up doing for a profession depends on what you enjoy doing for free…for someone or something else. That can be the planet or a species on it. Including us, or things we like: science, art, civilization, philosophy, religion, discovery, or general chaos and destruction. It is, of course, also what earns you money.

You need to earn money to support the best form of happiness you would like to endure through this life. Remember, no one wants to suffer, even us Stoics. We all have a very natural tendency for comfortable and pleasurable experiences to counter the stress of supporting civilization. If you have experienced some of the more expensive forms of fun, I don’t need to tell you they’re worth every penny. If you haven’t, please believe me when I tell you they’re always worth it. Of course, I’m not talking about flying first class and driving Lambos on the Vegas strip. I’m talking about paying for a getaway reunion for all wings, branches and generations of your family. Or the ability to take your spouse on a week-long trip to Italy or Greece or Spain or anywhere near the Mediterranean Sea in summer. But reunions and anywhere in the Mediterranean in summer for a week costs a gazillion dollars. So how do you do what you love and make a gazillion dollars while having time to spend in the Mediterranean? Jim Collins thinks it's by acting like a hedgehog and I couldn’t agree more.

Are you a hedgehog or a fox? Isaiah Berlin created the question in his famous essay, “The Hedgehog and the Fox.” It is a story stolen from many fables, but it ultimately asks whether someone should be an expert in one thing or a jack of all trades who is pretty good or adequate at many things. The answer in everything written since we could write has always been you go after being great at the one thing. Every generation since your great-great-grandparents has taught us that one big thing should be the main thing. So, why do you keep thinking the other way? Because it’s natural. When we were in tribes on our own, you needed to know how to do a lot. But we’re in civilization now and we need you to be really, really good at one thing. So, what’s your one big thing?

To find it, ask yourself three questions: What are you passionate about? What can you make money doing? What can you be the best in the world at?

When you have the singular answer to all of those, you have your job title.

I struggled for years about whether I should be a writer, a lawyer, a philosopher, a counselor, or a farming, woodworking family man. Applying the hedgehog concept to my equation, I saw how I could never be the best in the world at any of those individually. A lot of internal reflection got me to this thing and my other book. What did I end up with and what am I trying to sell myself as? The most unmarketable thing since an honest politician: the world’s best Stoic martinet.

The rest of Collins' equation calls for you to keep doing your thing until it takes off. But along the way, you must recognize and take advantage of the ever-changing nature of technology rather than being skeptical or afraid of it.

The aim inside finding the profession that is meant for you is finding a way to move your body that feels natural. Sure, there is an argument to be made that you can use your brain only, but what’s the product? You’re going to have to move your body at some point to create some impression we can judge, even if it's moving your mouth. But let me tell you, if you’ve got a job making the money you need just by moving your mouth, chances are it took enough education and experience to get there that we’re going to trust your work is going to benefit us. So, go ahead on with your bad self!

If you are at the beginning of your career and you’re clueless about what to do, good! That’s exactly where we need you. If you haven’t found your thing yet, you’re going to have to work in jobs that require the economy to move. Construction, production, landscape, service industry, etc. But it also means a lot of your free time should be spent inside exploration, so we’re not expecting much production from you outside work just yet. You need to feel what life feels like when you do different things. The rule when exploring should be iterative. Take a step and see if you get comfortable. Everyone is uncomfortable when they start something new. What matters is how long it takes for you to feel comfortable after taking that first step. For some, it never does and they grit and bear it all their lives. But is that how you want to live? Wouldn’t you rather be getting paid to do something you’re excited to get better at? Isn’t the aim to avoid resistance?

To find what you’re supposed to do, try stuff. It’s that simple. Do not listen to anyone else but your own thoughts. Your inclinations, flavors, and draw towards things will have a lot to say about what you should be doing, but you won’t know for sure until you try and feel what your body and mind enjoy doing. If you can’t try it, read about it. When you find yourself thinking about something when you’re doing otherwise menial stuff like bathing or walking the dog or eating alone, that’s the thing to keep chasing. And if your attention falls off, don’t despair. There are literally thousands of things to think about. And here’s the absolute craze balls thing about life. We’ll let you do any of it.

If you are feeling like your efforts are undervalued or not in line with good, change jobs or careers. What’s stopping you? You. There is no other answer. Unless you’re one of the souls reading this from jail, just stop the complaining already and go do something about it. If you’re ever going to stop the “grass is greener,” conversation in your head, you need to chase what feels natural to you and stop chasing work for money. Understandably, if you don’t have the financial means to devote your day to chasing a new path, you’re going to have to start sacrificing other resources, namely time. But when you’ve found a thing you’re genuinely passionate about, money loses its luster pretty quickly unless it also supports your passion.

If you’ve found happiness in your profession, let’s check in. Are you doing it the best way possible? Do you have the best people around you? Do you have a system in place to track and review progress? The questions are shorter and easier once you’ve found a comfortable and worthwhile purpose inside your profession, but they are still very much needed. If you’re looking for a new purpose, to redefine one, or abandon one for another, the questions get a bit more involved, but the ultimate question will always be the same: are you doing the one thing you can be the best in the world at? Realize that means you’re not ever to try harder than anyone else at what they’re doing. You’re supposed to be doing something new. If it’s new, it’s guaranteed you’ll be the best at it. Until someone else comes along and does it better. Then it’s up to you whether you’ll let your ego feel harmed or you’ll see it for what it really is, an opportunity to help us, not you.

For those at the end of your career, let’s find a new one. Find me a retired person who doesn’t work anymore. They don’t exist. Sure, some must have jobs, but they all give effort each day by moving their bodies for others. They are not resting and relaxing, and certainly not doing nothing at all. The issue is some move their bodies in ways they want, while others have to move to pay bills. If you want to feel retired now, find what you should be doing.

Your profession is also fluid and dynamic. If the way you move your body gets boring, find a new way to help us. We need you excited and passionate. We’ve all seen how it has worked out for us when you do what you love doing.

Please bring us much, much more of that.