What does your profession or job choice have to say about you? I did not want to become a lawyer at an early age. In fact, I can remember staring out of our glass door of my childhood home during high school, looking over the soybeans fields and dreaming of becoming the CEO of a large company. Well life got in the way. I got married at a young age and pursued an accounting degree in college. When I could never get my balance sheets to add up, I decided to become an economist. I thought I liked abstract economic theory. When I graduated from college with an economics degree, I ran into difficulty finding a job. What value is an economics degree without a masters or doctorate? I did not possess a trade. Therefore, I became a Boy Scout District Executive out of necessity. What a noble name for such an obscure job. The job position was manufactured for me. My uncle was big in the scouts and he encouraged the council executive to create Avoyelles Parish as its own scouting district with one caveat. I had to raise enough money from my newly created district to pay my salary. I remember my salary was no more than $13,000 a year in 1985. I was the CEO of my district though. I worked from home servicing existing packs and troops and starting new packs and troops. I helped train the leaders and organized and supervised scouting events. And, of course, I threw a lot of fundraising events and personally contacted several wealthy individual donors. Unfortunately, there existed no multinational corporations in the little town I grew up in. Strangely enough, after I graduated from college, I was living right next door to the house I had those dreams, in that little town I so desperately wanted to leave. (My mother let my wife and I live in an old wooden house she owned next to the family home rent-free.)
I was not making the money of a CEO while working with the Boy Scouts, so I decided to apply for law school and take the LSAT. My LSAT score was average and because of the political connections of my family, I got myself accepted to law school and moved back to the college town I had just left only a year and a half earlier. The wife soon followed after receiving her LPN degree. In my naivete, I wanted to become a lawyer because lawyers made lots of money. Money was now controlling my job choices and life decisions. Moreover, money controlled much of my legal career until I finally accumulated enough of it and realized that money does not make one happy.
So let us address the initial question. Have you ever questioned why you went into your particular job or profession? If you randomly fell into your job or if you are just starting out and don’t know what you want to be when you grow up, let these next few ideas I present guide you. The first idea was already mentioned. Money does not make you happy. Do not seek your profession or job based upon the average salary in that industry. The second idea is unique. Decide if you are a people person or not. By people person, I do not mean a person who is the life of the party or a person who can become friends with everyone. A people person career is a job that has the well-being of others at heart. For example, a real doctor truly has his patient’s health as his primary concern. A genuine priest has the well-being of the souls of his followers at heart. An authentic teacher has the education of her students as the primary reason for getting up in the morning.
Initially, I was not a people person. I did not care for the boys in scouting. As a lawyer, I did not have the legal problems of my clients as my primary and most important objective. Over time, I had to realize and grow into empathy. I can now tell you that real accountants care about their clients’ finances, real navy seals care about their country’s security, real doctors care about their patients’ health, real dentist care about their patients’ teeth and real lawyers care about, fret about and stress over their clients’ legal problems. Real, authentic and caring professionals are people persons.
Here is the nitty gritty. If you have already chosen your profession and are not happy but want to become happy, become a people person. If you have not yet chosen a profession and are just starting out, determine if you are a people person. If you decide that you are not a sincere people person, if you do not have a predestined professional desire like the pilot and if you do not have a family trade or business to step into, then you are an individualist. An individualist is one who works for others without patients or clients. Take for example, a welder or farmer. They weld or farm. A concern for their fellow human’s health, teeth, education or legal problems, for example, do not make them tick. As an individualist, their main driving force may be the love of their trade. In any event, do not let your choice of profession be determined by chance or the desire of money, as mine was. Do not follow my path. I hated the legal profession. Again, my primary concern, at least initially, was not my clients, but making lots of money. If you are not a people person, choose individualist jobs that make you happy. If you are a people person, chose a job with your patient or client at heart. Your life will be so much more enjoyable and gratifying.