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In reply to the discussion: Professor: ‘Follow your dreams’ is cruel advice [View all]blahblah98
(8 posts)I quit my job of 9yrs to go back to school and bring high-tech from engineering to the business world. I spent all my savings & maxed out my credit cards, but after 3 1/2 years, I started a company. I thought I'd made it. Then my partners fired me, and eventually ran the company to bankruptcy liquidation so I was left with nothing. The high-tech industry crashed, and I bounced between jobs, employed about 1/2 time. Stress wore down my family, my wife was angry & depressed all the time, my kids grew up under-performing with fewer opportunities than I'd had. We ate from the food-bank, borrowed from family to pay rent.
Finally after 15 hellish years I got a corporate job at a good, stable company. I'm paying my debts now, even bought my first house a couple months ago at the age of 50. My wife & I'll be working well into our 70s.
So I've come to believe that following your dreams applies to the rich and fortunate few. For the rest of us working-class folk it's a giant gamble with your future, the odds are not in your favor and the downside may be devastating. The media loves to play up the myths of the American Dream / Horatio Alger / Social Mobility, but the reality is we hear about the 1% successes but not the 99% failures.
Successful entrepreneurs sometimes talk about the dozens of times they failed before they succeeded once. How many among us can afford to fail a dozen times before that one success? I failed nearly that many times. Now, success to me is that corporate job I left nearly 20 years ago.
I think the brutal reality of today's college graduate job market is what Professor Wade is talking about: Do pursue your interests, but be realistic, pragmatic and always have a backup plan. My son in college likes & does well at history, but that is one of THE lowest-paying majors; why pay $150k for something that will eventually pay $40k/yr? He's logical and reasonably good at math, so it's a STEM major for him. There's a fine line between a dream and a nightmare.