“If Money Weren’t an Issue”

…& other things that challenge you to live your own life

If money were not an issue, what career path would you choose?

That was the question posed to recent Harvard graduates and they made choices that may surprise you.

• Top choices—(1) the Arts, with 16% picking it as their dream field; (2) Public Service at 12.5%; (3) Education at 12%.
• Only 5% of the grads picked Finance or Consulting.

However, money is often an issue after graduating so how did the big money makers for graduates from Finance and Consulting, faire in the “real world” of Harvard graduates?

• Finance—11.5% chose this field in 2009 but this is a big drop from 23% in 2008.
• Consulting—8.5% chose this field in 2009 but this too is a big drop…down from 16% in 2008.

Is this a new trend? Perhaps. Perhaps it is a momentary deviation from the two-decade trend of “going for the gold”. Or perhaps it is a part of a fundamental change in our world.

That is what Richard Florida posits in his recent book “The Great Reset”. Like the Toronto School of Business professor’s previous books on the growing importance of the “Creative Class”, there is a big change in our world driven by changing values that reflect new realities of a world experiencing simultaneous breakdown (from environment to all major institutions) and breakthrough (in creative arts, sciences, sustainability and social enterprise).

It is my observation that individuals, like the recent college grads, need to be redesigning their personal career and life plans at the same time companies in every industry are fundamentally resetting their business models.

There is a new world emerging and any thinking person living an examined life owes it to themselves to question what future success looks like to them, assess what their core values are and begin to move into a life that reflects their true passions and source of fulfillment.

Don’t you wonder what the world would be like if we all did that?