“Do a job you love and you’ll never have to work in a day in your life.”
We’ve all heard that advice before and it’s pretty friggin’ insulting. Mostly because many of us don’t have the opportunity to do a job we love. But, we can love aspects of our work and what our job means to us, but still very much see it as work. At the Women 2.0 Founder Friday event at Google’s headquarters in San Francisco I asked attendees, “What truly makes you happy at work?” Here are their answers.
Thanks to the following for participating:
Molly O’Kane (@swsprouts), Adriana Ascenau (@whelmobaby), Robin Yang (@robinyang), Cassandra Anderson, Anastasia Ashman (@anastasiaashman), Kalin Kelly (@kalin_kelly), Debbie Lai (@aylai), Maria Zhang (@mariarenhui), Tasha Choi (@tashachoi), Vishal Kalia (@raf9dotcom), Michelle Martinez, Shanthala Balagopal (@shanthala), Alex (@alexandergnoss), Mark Xie (@hackerdreamer), Tonia Berry, Maria Gandara (@fer_gandara), Ling C (@tlingf), Lydia Harter (@lydali), Ali Price (@aliprice), Julia Fedorenko (@julfirefly), Btnna Park (@btnnapark02), Kathie Green (@kath8000), Mahendra R (@mahendra_gr), Marisol MacGreggor (@marimac), Caroline Caselli (@cmcaselli), Sarah Kling (@skkling), Melissa Shilliday, Nancy Hayes, Katherine Kuan, Luciana Carvalho (@lcarvalhose), Charlotte Crawford (@charlottecrwfrd), Tania Arrayales(@taniaarrayales), Bianca Loew (@biankayam), Bill Biggar (@billbiggar), Ruben Ximenez Rios (@schoolcontrolmx), Giselle Pineda, and everyone else whose names I unfortunately didn’t capture.
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Miriam, I strongly disagree with your “friggin’ insulting” comment : (“Do a job you love and you’ll never have to work in a day in your life.”
We’ve all heard that advice and it’s pretty friggin’ insulting. Mostly because many of us don’t have the opportunity to do a job we love.) — — It is very good advice if you make the effort to follow your passions into professional/business life. See countless social entrepreneurs. I know what I speak of: it is my life’s work to help women build micro-social businesses.
I think we’re going to have to disagree on this one. I see that helping people love their job is core to your business so you’re passionate about that. But there are tons of jobs out there that it would be difficult to love for long stretches of time yet people have to fulfill the job and they do it.
All I can say to people who hates their work, “Stop acting the victim. YOU are responsible for your life and if you can’t immediately change the job you are in, then it is up to you to make the most of it.”
I agree with you to a point. Getting a new job is not like switching to a new flavor of cola. That new job isn’t necessarily available and the unknown when it will be available is what often causes people to stay in a job. There’s also the variable of having to feed your family. I understand when it happens, and it’s not the easiest thing to get out of. I sympathize with the problem, but yes I agree that it’s the individual’s responsibility to get out. Nobody else’s.