The rating game
If you want to be miserable, and desire to make your career quest endlessly complicated, just focus your attention on one thing: status. Always ask yourself, “What could I do today that would improve my standing in the rating game?”
Get into the polling business. Find out what you could do with your life that would impress the largest number of people. If the Mafia is admired in your circle of friends, then by all means consider a career with the mob. If the ministry is highly esteemed, then start packing your bags and preparing for a missionary career in a foreign land.
Making lots of money and being able to buy lots of things that will really impress lots of people… may turn out to rate the highest in the polls. In that case, you will certainly need to get out of the ministry and get into a mega-money-making career of some sort. Maybe you could move to China, join the communist party, and find a few thousand peasants you could exploit in your very own factory.
If fame is the main thing that matters in the latest polls, some type of music or media career might be right up your alley. Devote your life, every waking moment, to becoming the next Justin Bieber. Get into the yodeling business and attempt to win the next world championship. Campaign for a spot in the next “reality” television show. Oprah is retiring you know.
Completely disregarding what others think is not a good idea. But being controlled by what others think is a recipe for a career disaster. And the thing is, it is often very difficult to know what other people really think anyway.
It has been said before, but I’ll say it again: In your 20s you will tend to worry about what other people think about you. In your 40s you will tend not to really care that others think. And in your 60s you will realize that most people weren’t thinking about you at all.
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