Prosperity Over Passion is Not a Bad Thing
I distinctly remember a moment from three years ago when someone called me shallow for having a job I wasn’t particularly passionate about. At the time, I was working 12-hour days in my first job out of school. I had previously interned at the same company, I liked the people, and it paid a lot more than the other job offers I had — this latter point being the main reason why I took the job. What seemed logical to me was seen as shallow to someone else. Simply working for the money, disconnected from passion or any personal purpose, was frowned upon.
Fast-forward to now, I have a different job (although still within the same company) and I’m well-paid for what I do. I understand that a lot of people are not in the same type of fortunate situation, so I always remind myself to practice gratitude, no matter how burnt out, stressed, or frustrated I may feel at work. My job allows me to rent an apartment I absolutely love, Uber during rush hour if I can’t be bothered to take the subway, and recklessly make Amazon Prime purchases for things I think I need (but really don’t). I can travel for leisure throughout the year, take a fitness class, and try new restaurants without having to worry too much about my spending. I come from a modest single-parent household and I’ve been completely financially independent since college (fun fact: I’ve been the sole policyholder of my health and dental insurance for years before turning 26), so the money I spend is 100% earned and not a cent given. I’m very proud of my financial independence and don’t miss the days when my mom would scold me for using my “emergency only” credit card to buy a Starbucks coffee. I can now buy as many overpriced coffees as I want (and more), and she can’t say anything. I even have a gold-plated brass necklace from The Wing that says “Self-Funded” — that’s how much I embrace financial independence as part of my identity, and it’s all because of the paycheck I work for.
To most people, a job is a job — a way to make a living and put food on the table. It’s an unfortunate reality, but a lot of people’s careers don’t align with their true passions, and that alignment may potentially never happen. People can find a topic or industry interesting, but it isn’t necessarily their passion . I was recently speaking with a colleague who told me that when he quit his old job at an asset management firm, he had a job offer to do data analytics for a major LA sports team — a role he described as his “dream job”. Instead, he turned it down to work at where we’re both employed today, which is ironically another asset management firm just half a block away from his former company. When I asked my colleague why he turned down his dream job, he said that they would have paid only a mere quarter of what he’s making now. The choice to him was obvious. Oftentimes, a dream job can’t provide your dream lifestyle, and that’s when tough decisions have to be made.
Broadly speaking, there are three ways to follow your true passion if it isn’t already embedded in a well-paying job: make a lot of sacrifices, get financial help, or do it on the side. All three methods come with complications, downsides, or strings attached, so there isn’t a definitive answer as to which path is best to pursue. As an aspiring writer and journalist who currently can’t make the necessary sacrifices to do it full-time (or ask my boyfriend to bankroll me — for the record, he wouldn’t), I have to resort to side-hustling.
I know some people who work in lucrative Wall Street jobs because they have a heap of student debt to pay off. I know a former classmate who’s making as much money as he can to help his parents send his younger brother to college. Some people are saving up to go to business school, or putting money aside for an eventual down payment on a home. Others have been conditioned to derive their own self-worth based on their paycheck or the prestige of their company’s name (and albeit unfortunate, this is common for children of high-earning parents as well as immigrant parents). I’m fully aware that there are a lot of disreputable, materialistic, chauvinistic people in Finance — and I am in no way trying to defend them — but there are also a lot of people on Wall Street trying to be financially prosperous for honorable, personal reasons.
People’s career motivations are often complex, not openly discussed, and in flux. Following your passion is hard, and anyone who’s successfully done it would agree (and if they don’t, they’re delusional). You can’t judge a person without seeing their full picture, and it’s a picture that’s usually very personal and private, as most money matters are. As long as you’re doing what feels right in this period of your life, no one can label your intentions as being shallow.
In the wise words of Missy Elliot: “Girls, girls, get that cash / If it’s 9 to 5 or shaking your ass / Ain’t no shame, ladies do your thing / Just make sure you ahead of the game.”
