Life Reflection and Career Advice

Personal Reflection

• Felt 20s were wasted due to lack of positive influence
• Worked in various unspecialized jobs (restaurant, radio gig, data entry at Lap Corp, medical transcription)
• Experienced layoff, realized lack of specialized skills

Influence of Spouse

• Encouragement from wife to pursue computers and programming
• Resistance due to unambitious work environment
• Eventually started learning to code and moved to software development

Important Realization: Career Diagram

• A key turning point was a career diagram influencing mindset
• Originally found in a Michael Hyatt blog post
• Diagram answers essential career questions

Career Components

1. Passion

• Essential for long-term job satisfaction
• Excitement and personal fulfillment
• Example: Collecting baseball cards won’t likely lead to a career

2. Proficiency

• Important to be good at what you do
• Others will seek your expertise
• Passion without skill won’t succeed, and skill without passion leads to job dissatisfaction

3. Profitability

• Career needs to be financially viable
• Distinguish between hobbies and careers
• Example: Nursing as a career is profitable

Intersection of All Three

• Ideal career lies where passion, proficiency, and profitability meet
• Lack of any one component can lead to dissatisfaction or financial instability

Steps for Finding the Right Career

1. Identify what you’re good at (get input from others if necessary)
2. Determine what you love doing
3. Cross off passions that aren’t profitable

Personal Application

• Realized a passion and skill for computers dating back to high school
• Software development became a fulfilling and profitable career

Encouragement

• Opportunities are boundless, especially with the internet
• Negative opinions from others shouldn’t deter you

Practical Uses of the Diagram

College Degrees

• Helps avoid debt from non-viable majors (e.g., theater, art)

Content Creation

• Determine what content to create by aligning personal interest, audience interest, and existing content

Call to Action

• Reflect on your own career situation using the diagram
• Engage in the comments section, like, and subscribe to channel