Assim Nicholas Taleb said: “The three most harmful addictions are heroin, carbohydrates, and a monthly salary.” In order to go far in life, we must never make salary our destination. You are not placed on this earth to be a wandering generality, but rather a meaningful specific. Never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life. Don’t be too busy making money that you forget to make a life. Busy people don’t make more money; they actually make more ‘stress.’ Even if you work for government or an organization, your salary should be an added advantage and must never be the object of your pursuit. Never make your salary your destination!
Dwayne Johnson said: “Don’t work eight hours for a company, then go home and not work on your own goals and dreams. You’re not tired, you’re uninspired.” You must discipline yourself to work more on your dreams, vision and passion than you work on your job. The best career path decision must never be in relation to the salary you want to earn. It should rather be in response to the problems you want to solve. Salary-minded people have already put a limit on how far they can go in life while people that are pre-occupied with the problems they want to solve with their passion and dreams are limitless. The poor live on salary, the rich live on profits. Salary is limited while profit is limitless.
Depending totally on salary will put your financial life under tension. When all you think about is salary and pension, it is an open invitation to financial misery. Someone said, “Your salary is the bribe they give you to forget your dreams”. I believe there is an iota of truth in this quote because most times, if care is not taken, we become so much busy with our job that we have little time for our dreams. Many people run aggressively after money and forget that the true purpose of having money is to give us ample time to pursue the critical things of life: our vision, dreams and passion.
One of the greatest financial decisions you would ever make is to think outside the box and design your life beyond your salary and pension. Design your life around your dreams, gifts and passion.
Farrah Gray said: “Build your own dreams or someone else will hire you to build theirs.” Design a future that makes you less dependent on salary and pension, and don’t confine yourself to a lifetime of living on someone else’s schedule. You are not destined to live the rest of your life from paycheck to paycheck. Don’t build your destiny around your salary and job, build your destiny around your dream and passion.
Joseph Campbell once said, “Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors where there were only walls.” There are many things in life that’ll catch your eye but only a few will catch your heart, pursue those things that catch your heart. You can’t and must never build your future around your salary because it’s uncertain and unsustainable.
The evolution of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) underlines fruitlessness of getting addicted to your pension at the detriment of your passion. Colonel Harland Sanders was an American business magnate best known for founding Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) and later acting as the company’s goodwill ambassador and symbol. Sanders went through traumatizing experiences that eventually shaped his life. In 1903, Sanders dropped out of school and lived on a farm after arguments with his stepfather. He took a job painting horse carriages, worked as a farmhand for two years, worked with his uncle in a street car company as a conductor. He enlisted in the United States Army prematurely at the age of 16 and was discharged after three months. He moved to Sheffield and worked as a blacksmith’s helper and two months after as a train cleaner. Sanders had many failures and kept moving from one job to another. He later enrolled as a fireman, worked as a salesman thereafter and also sold life insurance.
In 1930, Sanders finally quit working as a result of the great depression and decided to look from within what he could do to make a difference. The turning point came one day as Colonel Sanders was sitting on his porch in Corbin, Kentucky; one morning, the mailman came up the walk and handed him his first social security check, then he was 65 years old, broke and defeated, he look at the check and said, “My government is going to give me a hundred and five dollars a month so I can eke out an existence. Surely there is something I can do for myself and other people.” He was internally motivated and began to engage himself in deep thinking, and deep thinking always produces results.
The thought of his mother’s special recipe for fried chicken came to his mind. It was a particular formula, which he considered somewhat special. Sanders began to cook chicken dishes and finally opened a little restaurant. It was doing well, then the highway was rerouted and he lost everything! Though Harland Sanders’ chicken was a hit, there were still many challenges to surmount.
Sanders decided to sell Franchises for marketing his fried chicken formula but was turned down by scores of restaurants. After much rejection, he rounded up some investors and the legendary Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) was born. The KFC was one of the first fast food chains to expand internationally, opening outlets in Canada and later England, Mexico and Jamaica by the mid-60s.
The company’s rapid expansion to more than 600 locations became overwhelming for the aging Sanders. His famous “finger-licking” Kentucky fried chicken made from a special recipe changed the face of “chicken” forever. Harland Sanders impact was so significant that Kentucky Governor, Ruby Laffoon, in 1935 made Harland an honorary Kentucky Colonel in recognition of his awesome impact, their advertising logo says it all-‘We do chicken right’. There will always be something that you can do so well that people will be willing to pay for it! I want you to take a deep break to ask yourself this one question: ‘what is that one thing that I can do right?
Sanders’ life pointed towards two facts about making a difference: one, there is no age that is too much to make a difference; two, there is nothing too small or insignificant to make a difference with as long as it is your passion. Colonel Sanders at the age of 65, made a difference with his chicken recipe. It’s amazing how a man can make a difference all over the world just with “chicken”!
Many graduates have put this question across to me during trainings: How do you know if a job is not right for you? I have always told them this discerning truth: When a job is stifling and hindering the expression of your passion, then it is not your job. Your real job is finding your passion. Your job gives you an opportunity to make a living, while your passion gives you an opportunity to make a difference.
Sir Richard Branson said, “There is no greater thing you can do with your life and your work than follow your passions, in a way that serves the world and you.” There are few things in life that brings deep fulfillment, and one of them is aligning your passion with your profession. You can’t fully live life until you learn to give expression to your passion. What is your passion? It can be music, writing, acting, painting, sports, fashion designing, teaching, arts etc. Normal Cousin said, “The greatest tragedy of life is not that we die but what dies in us while we live.” Don’t carry your passion to the grave!
