I’m sure you’ve been to networking events and been asked the standard question: “What do you do?” Tim Ferriss, author of The Four Hour Work Week, relishes this question stating, “I never enjoyed answering the cocktail question because it reflects an epidemic I was long part of: Job descriptions as self-descriptions.”
Something about that statement struck me. Why do we define ourselves by our job title? Isn’t there much more to us than what we do for a living? Certainly there is; we’ve just buried those things. I heard a guest on Oprah Winfrey’s show say it like this, “I’ve always wanted to be a veterinarian but money got in the way.” This guest was an anchorman making $250,000. With this “success” he’d taken on the expected trappings, i.e., two homes with mortgages, vehicles, etc. He “couldn’t” just leave his job and pursue his dream of becoming a veterinarian.
Isn’t that what happens to so many of us? When I think back to when I was in college i was a different person–I was bolder, took more risks, stood up for more causes. But what I’ve discovered is that the more you have, the more you have to lose. You don’t want to lose your money on your house or your job (those things that now define you) by taking bold moves or standing up for what you believe in. But by letting the money get in the way, you lose something even greater–you lose yourself.
