Money

"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do." -- Steve Jobs

I always have this believe, do not work for money. And I always believe that one has to be passionate about what he works on. Recently, I met a girl who has to work to support her life as a undergrad. It generates certain respect in me, and makes me re-think my belief on work. When I search for the roots of my belief, I realize that throughout my education, I haven't worried about financing my education. High school and college tuition fee were not even a topic of discussion in my family, and in graduate school, tuition and stipend are taken care of by the school. What left to me to consider is only whether or not I like the topic I study or the work I do.

An interesting statement from one of the postdoc in my lab is that the best minds follow the money. It sounds ridiculous to me when I first heard it. But she backed up her argument by stating that all those law schools, business schools and med schools attract the top students in US because entering those schools almost guarantee a career with high income. It is a point that people in those school could hardly agree with, but I feel it has certain truth in it. I believe that there are certainly people who enter those schools because of the high-paid jobs.

The question becomes more complicated when I start to consider why the US social system in general rewards lawyers, businessman and medical doctors the most. Is it because those are really the careers that generate the most value to a society, or is it because they are just hard to get in.

Stephan Covey's whole person paradigm sheds some light on my confusion. It stresses that a life with true happiness and fulfillment (or in his words, voice) needs to consider all four parts of a human being: the body/the material needs for survival, the mind/to grow, the heart/to love, and the spirit/to live a legacy. In the current context, money is necessary for survival; passion is also crucial if one wants to truly enjoy the work; and meaningfulness in work is also crucial because in the end, we need to answer the question, what I contribute for the society.

Still on the way of searching for such a life.

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