In our pursuit towards success, we’ve had its definition imposed on us without question. If you work hard, we’re told, you’ll become successful, and once you become successful, then you’ll be happy. The problem with all of this is that it’s a broken formula. Though we’re often hardworking, we never take the time to define success for ourselves.
The results of this approach stare you in the face at every social gathering that isn’t a college party that you’ve ever been to. If you live in the US, “where are you from” is usually followed shortly by “what do you do” as the obligatory small talk you make with every person you meet. Most people say they like what they do. I think most people are either in denial or are plainly lying. It’s probably the former. While a majority of people say they enjoy their jobs, only 15% of people are actually engaged at work, according to Gallup. 1 2
Needless to say, we do our best work when we’re happy. With that said, disliking what you do is as good a recipe for failure as any. By the time we’re old enough to start thinking about work, the monotony of the classroom has already made us think of work as a categorically unpleasant thing. With all their role models around them saying they love what they do, you can’t blame any kids for feeling professionally alienated.
So we’ve established that we have a lot of unfulfilled people. But how’d we get here in the first place? Let’s get boring for a second. In contract theory, a subset of economics, there’s a concept called signalling that deals with how people convey credibility. A good example of this is a college degree. Having a piece of paper on it that says you’ve put your time and effort into learning something tells employers you’re probably a safe bet to hire.
Where this can become slippery is when we get into the domain of prestige. Prestige is basically a distilled version of everyone else’s opinions. Unfortunately, it can distort even your own perceptions about what you enjoy. Paul Graham, Co-Founder of the famed startup accelerator Y Combinator, makes a good case against prestige in a 2006 essay:
“Prestige is just fossilized inspiration. If you do anything well enough, you'll make it prestigious. Plenty of things we now consider prestigious were anything but at first. Jazz comes to mind—though almost any established art form would do. So just do what you like, and let prestige take care of itself...If it didn't suck, they wouldn't have had to make it prestigious.”3
Professional values tend to fall in line with prestige thinking, but for good reason. As humans, we’ve evolved to be very risk averse. In older times, it’s what’s kept us from getting eaten alive by predators, and today it’s why we invest in index funds and value stable jobs.
The problem with hedging our bets is that it can pigeonhole us into doing things we don’t like. Stable jobs tend not to be the most enjoyable-- there’s probably more college students who want to be artists and whose parents want them to be lawyers than the contrary. Even if your parents’ wishes aren’t that opposed to your own, there needs to be some kind of process to define success for ourselves.
I’m working on it.
Until tomorrow,
Alex
Spiegel, David. “85% Of American Workers Are Happy with Their Jobs, National Survey Shows.” CNBC, CNBC, 2 Apr. 2019, www.cnbc.com/2019/04/01/85percent-of-us-workers-are-happy-with-their-jobs-national-survey-shows.html.
Clifton, Jim. “The World's Broken Workplace.” Gallup.com, Gallup, 13 Jan. 2020, news.gallup.com/opinion/chairman/212045/world-broken-workplace.aspx?g_source=position1.
Graham, Paul. “How to Do What You Love.” Paul Graham, www.paulgraham.com/love.html?viewfullsite=1.