Advice from Steve Jobs: Do what you love

I heard him talk about work passion this morning on CBC.

Who here can truly say they love what they do, can't wait to get to work in the morning, and would do it for free if they had to?

For those who've found it, how did you get there?

Jobs said "don't settle, keep looking. You don't settle on a mate, you shouldn't settle on a career" (paraphrase). I want to do that..

Discuss.

I married the woman that I love. Got it right the second time.

I am doing the work that I love, got it right the second time.

I am still hoping for a high 6-figure salary (with no relocation) with a manufacturer of ATVs, Cars, Motorcycles, Airplanes, Construction Equipment, etc. That would be the only way to improve on the company I work for, and while it seems like a pipe dream, so did the first two. Oh, and my bosses and corporate culture would have to move to the new company as well. And the new company would have to be 10 minutes form home too. And keep the business casual attire. And free lunches. OK, so it's a big pipe.

Wait! My company could just stop making the product that it makes, and switch to making race cars. That would fix everything.

Jeff wrote: Jobs said "don't settle, keep looking. You don't settle on a mate, you shouldn't settle on a career" (paraphrase). I want to do that.. Discuss.

I've come to the conclusion that I'll probably be never more than "content" to work. The fact is, racing doesn't pay the bills, and that's all I really care about in life (and MAYBE finding a significant other that I care about as well ).

I view a job as a means to an end, and that end is to be out competing. Like I've said before, I'd be perfectly content to shovel E36 M3 if they paid me $40/h to do it.

Not everything in life has to be based on how successful you are at your career. I find a more worthwhile measurement is how successful you have been at whatever you've put your mind towards (it doesn't always have to earn you money). I figure that if I land the right job shortly (have an interview in a month where I should be earning $40/h while still working in the bottom half of Alberta), I'll look at saving up, buying a condo, and then going to University to get a degree in something that I want. Then I can have my practical schooling that almost always guarantees me a job, and my dream schooling that I don't have to stress at how well I do or how much it costs.

i believe it. but i also believe that it's too late for me. not because of my age, but because of my current responsibilities. i'm good at what i do and i make good money doing it, but i am only sometimes enthusiastic about getting out of bed to do it. for every day on the test track, i spend 20 in the office.

so until my kids are out of college, i will continue to do what i do, and have some fun on the side with applying the challenge mentality to everything else.

I love what I do. I am the Editor/Content Manager for AutoTrader Classics. I get to write/read/learn/talk about cars all day long. I also get to play with computers and even do a little bit of hack coding. I travel to car shows and visit shops. I even got to be on TV. I get to work for a small company while enjoying all of the benefits of a huge company (pension, discounts, 401k, insurance, and tons of vacation).

But the road was loooooooong and honestly I never saw the destination. I tripped into the automotive field by using my graphic design skills to land a job at Year One as a catalog writer. Pretty much I was hired because I knew QuarkXPress and could identify car parts. At the same time I was pursuing my Bachelor's of Technical Communication at night. I worked full time and went to class at night. I lived like that for ten years.

During those ten years I worked my way up to Lead Technical Writer at Year One, then went on to a few other automotive parts companies. I grew and started catalog departments as I went. I worked at some really lousy places. The whole time I was determined to stay in automotive field no matter what. At my last job I almost gave up though. I hated my last job with a passion. DILYSIDave worked there, he understands.

I job searched for two years and finally gave up on finding another automotive job in Atlanta. My resume was solid but had such a wide variety of skills that I never really found a job listing that fit what I did. I had applied at AutoTrader seven times over the years and never got a call back. I finally saw an opening for Content Manager on the Cox Careers site. Amazingly I actually had ALL of the qualifications. I interviewed back to back on Thursday and Friday, the most grueling interviews I have ever had. On the way home I got a phone call with a job offer. My boss has said I was the fastest hire he has ever made.

The main point is that all the stuff I did in my career finally paid off. All of the different skills I learned, all of the jobs I held, all of it came together to prepare me for my dream job. At one point I sat down and stared at my resume thinking "I have wasted ten years of my life doing all of this stuff and now I have to start over." Turns out those ten years were spent training me for a job I will hopefully hold for a very long time. Sure I get upset some days or a project is overwhelming, but I still choose to be here every day. My wife comments all the time how much happier I am and I tend to agree.

I hate my job with a passion.

Necessary evil, though, so i just deal with it.

I love my job.. it is some of my bosses that I can't stand.

Jeff wrote: Who here can truly say they love what they do, can't wait to get to work in the morning, and would do it for free if they had to? For those who've found it, how did you get there?

I found it, at least 90% of the days that I wake up.

How did I get here? I'll answer with another favorite quote- "Good things happen to good people. Great things happen to people who work really hard."

I'm self-employed.

I love my job but my boss is a dick. He makes me get up early every morning, sleeps with my wife and takes half my money.

Never thought I'd be restoring cars for a living, just sorta fell ass-backwards into it.

Shawn

I've always said that if you do anything long enough, it becomes just a job. I used to love what I do. Now it's just a job. There are exceptions, but I think it's true. Soon I will retire, because that's what I really want to do. Nothing for awhile.

I think I am well on my way. I have the woman I love, and I am so far complacent in my new position. I think it will get better after I lay the foundation, but right now its a bit tedious (I expected the first few months to be).

I definitely enjoy my hobbies (I write for a sucessful and growing automotive blog as well as a growing and nearly sucessful Porsche niche magazine!)

I hated my last job, but it allowed me the experience to be where I am now.

I will somewhat disagree. You should do what you love to do as WORK. Not what you love to do as pleasure (not a porn reference). Doing what you love as a pleasure has the potential to kill that pleasure.

Many of us here love working on their cars, but probably would not enjoy working as a mechanic. At lot of that has to do with it being other peoples cars, but also would be a bit of "I do it all day at work, I really don't want to do it when I get home"

But wouldn't the ideal situation be to do what you love and get paid. And as the what you loved changed over time as it does, (the who would pay you might change) you'd still get paid.

I struggle with this all the time, and I think most people do. It's awfully hard to wrap your head around making a living doing what you would do if you didn't have to make a living.

My GF reminded me about something she heard Jobs say; "I start each day thinking, if I were to die today, am I doing what I want to be doing? If there are enough of those in a row where the answer is no, I need to change direction."

In three months and three days I will begin taking a Certified Brewmaster Course in Germany. In the meantime, introducing myself to potential future employers involves sampling varieties of beer. I think I'm on the right path.

Jeff wrote: But wouldn't the ideal situation be to do what you love and get paid...

Well, it is not an absolute that you don't do what you love, but when it becomes a business, there are all those sometimes unpleasant business aspects that can come into it. Competition, money, complaints etc.

For someone like Jobs. He seemed like someone who loved the competition and challenge of business in general and was very good at it. So in his case it works.

I do wonder, with people like Jobs, if they really had hobby type things they enjoyed, or was it just the competition of work that really kept them going. You see these people who make huge sums of money, but just keep going, like they have nothing they would rather do. Is it because the money chase is what they truly enjoy, or is it they have never learned how to enjoy themselves otherwise?

Only racecar drivers, pro athletes, enthusiast magazing publishers, and rock stars get up in the morning and go to fun, the rest of us go to work. Im ok with that.

Steve jobs must have have loved taking credit for his employees work and using frivolous lawsuits to crush upcoming competitors.

I love my job, and look forward to coming to work.

I got it by making them an offer they couldn't refuse, (I'll do whatever job you need--- I'll take any entry level pay you offer) and then proving I was of value to them.

My problem is that I really enjoy such a wide variety of activities that I could never limit myself to just one, and I've chased several of them as a career only to get close enough to realize it wasn't what it was cracked up to be.

Do I hate my day-job? No, but 3-months ago I was so burnt out I would have taken almost anything else. I'm pretty excited about our opportunities now, but also enough of a realist to know I'll get burnt out again someday.

I also started a small p/t business 2-years ago, and should exceed $12k in gross business this year. I LOVE doing it, although working all these hours is grueling and tiring. It's something I may be able to do full-time eventually, but we really need to be debt-free & maybe get our 2-oldest out on their own first.

OTOH, if things keep going well at my day-job, I really don't want to walk away from the money either - unless my business grows so much that I'm losing more in potential business there than I'm earning here now.

I see almost all aspects of my own work life reflected in the posts above. My basic outlook has always been you can do what you love and take a little less money and spend a little more time, (but it's ok b/c you love it) OR you can do something you're good enough at that they will give you the money and the time to persue your passion in your off hours.

Coming out of college, I assumed I would never find a way to be paid for what I loved (cars and beer drinking), and I had seen the life of a car repair mechanic and damn sure didn't want to be your average wrench, so I took the second option. Looking back, I think I might have been (be?) happier if I took the other road and really figured out how to get paid for something I loved even if it wasn't paid well. Unfortunately, I now have a mountain of debt and have to stay the course. (Yeah, I know, but don't flounder this thread with a debt-free discussion)

Having said that, I don't hate my job - I'm one of the managing influences in a small business that lets me alternate between desk work and tech stuff. Any job gets tedious at times, and if our sales were a little better and we were a little more secure I probably would be a whole lot happier about being where I am. But that's the unspoken curse of small business, American dream, right?

When I daydream, I would be a succesful industrial / advertising photographer charging enough that I could race weekends or photo the races at my leisure. If I can make headway on my debt, I might pursue that.

LOL, so if any of you guys need industrial / product / advertising photo work done, you know who to call ! Special GRM rates!!

It's a long road, and I think it's complicated because what you want changes. It always will. the things you think will make you happy in 10 years probably won't because you won't be the same person then that you are now, looking ahead. The best you can do is take the measure of what you do every so often and adjust. If you're really unhappy, make a change. At worst you'll be....really unhappy. At best, you'll find that golden ticket.

i think the lesson is that you might as well do something you like doing, because no matter how much money you have, you're still gonna die eventually.

Do I love what I do? No, but I do enjoy it. There is a certain satisfaction to doing a good job and getting paid good for it.

Like was said above, I'm self employed, and the boss is an shiny happy person. You will never work harder than you will work for yourself. Hell, I did a 20 hour work day last week from 7:00am Friday morning to 3:00am Saturday morning.

How I got here.

First, I didn't go to college. So far I haven't missed it.

I started my working life as a electricians apprentice, and hated it.

Moved to destructive testing of electrical safety gear, and hated it.

Moved to heavy equipment operator, hated it less, but still hated it.

Went into the hobby retail business, and loved it for 12 years, but couldn't afford it.

Moved to the automatic pedestrian door business, loved the money, and didn't hate the work.

Went to a bigger, international company, still enjoyed the work and money, but HATED the corporate climate and their business ethics. So I quit.

I figured I could do it better on my own so I hocked everything I could and sent the wife back to work. That was 6 and a half years ago. The wife is back home full time and life is good most of the time. For a guy with no college education, I make an outstanding income. I have no complaints and don't mind going to work in the morning at all.

Would I do it for free? Hell no, the money is at least 50% of the fun. I'm not a live to work guy, I'm a work to live guy.

As soon as racing cars became a career, it would cease to become an escape. Right now I can pay my entry fee to LeMons, the Challenge, auto-x, whatever, drive all day, party like a psychomaniacmotherberkeleyer all night, walk away backlit by the flames, and open my shop playing the unsuspecting evil business owner role.

15 years ago to the day, hour, minute, I was eating pasta with a little butter, and (the following morning) riding my roomate's bike 5 miles to make $6/hour at the carwash. I also got laid a lot and drank for free whenever my buddy dj'd.

Life was good then. Life is good now.

I spent 20+ years of my career pursuing what I loved. The last few years I convinced myself my responsibilities were more important than my passions.

I was wrong.

Jobs is right, and I am returning to passion. I am, however, learning new passions. Scary, but exhilarating at the same time.

Providing for family includes sharing the real me with them, not just what I can earn. There is no point to bringing home the bacon if you can't enjoy it.

Money ain't worth it. Life's too good.