the rabbi of berdichev saw a man running down the street.
he asked the man, “why are you hurrying so?”
“i’m rushing to find my livelihood,” the man answered.
“and how do you know,” the rabbi asked, “that your livelihood is running ahead of you? maybe it’s behind you, and all you need to do is stop running and it will catch up to you.”
traditional chassidic jewish story
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aaaaarrrrrrgggggghhhhhhh. oh the irony. one of my first jobs out of college was as a cook in a pizza chain. as the years went by, through this job and that, i often said that that was probably the best job i’d ever had (doesn’t say much for the rest of my efforts). now, in my 4th career, i am a professional cook. sigh.
ah, right livelihood. so many career guides tell us to look back at what we enjoyed doing in the past. while this may be good advice for some people, it doesn’t take into account fields that may not have existed until recently. people in their 20s today have a bewildering array of choices, many of which were not even dreamt of when prior generations were coming of age, and the children born this year will have even more possibilities.
another question that may be helpful for people to ask themselves when looking back is “what was I interested in but never had the chance to pursue?” giving it a try now will, at the very least, satisfy curiosity to some extent. and it may lead to a livelihood through connections and new ideas that appear during the process.
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