What about a hotel call-girl or a high-priced ballerina stripper? Plenty of job opportunities in Vegas.
Yeah! What he said.
Life is a work in progress. Here you are, doing something you didn’t expect to do and as a result it’s changing you. Your ideas and expectations are different. You are aware of possibilities you didn’t know about before, not all of them desirable.
A few years teaching may seem like a ‘failure’ if you choose to compare it to being, say, mayor of New York, but it’s a step on your own personal path. Paths lead up and down mountains, and round corners. New vistas open up all the time if you follow the path and you never really know where you’ll end up. You can keep your eyes focused on the highest peak and keep trying to find ways up it. You can explore the myriad wonders below the tree line, follow the rivers, seek out the passes that lead to new lands, keep to the valleys and plains, or find a cave to settle in become an ascetic. It’s up to you, but you would never have had those choices if you had followed a different path and ignored all the other possibilities.
You might have got to where you wanted to be, but you wouldn’t have known about the other places you could have gone.
Speaking more practically, this is the 21st century. The rate of change makes stability and dependability much less likely. You can’t put your trust in the certainties that worked for our parents. Jobs, careers, entire industries, can disappear in a very short time. Whole new areas of opportunity open up all the time. And the balance of wealth is shifting. To be an internationally mobile, adaptable human being may be the key to future success.
When I left high school a career in computing looked like the smart thing to pursue. The UK’s manufacturing industry had been decimated by Taiwan, Kores, Japan, etc and all the talk was of ‘the service industry’. Now the software jobs are going to India, along with the call centres and financial services. Anything that doesn’t require face-to-face contact goes to where the costs are lowest, leaving fewer people who actually create wealth to pay for the services they use.
Snce then I’ve witnessed the disappearance of corporations such as Mirror Group Newspapers (along with the employee pension fund) Bank of Credit and Commerce International (along with all the money belonging to one local government in the UK), Barings Bank, Enron, Anderson, the British car industry, and a few political ‘certainties’ such as the Soviet Union. Even Margaret Thatcher’s job disappeared one day. In my lifetime my own country has had exchange rate controls, tax up to 90%, a three-day working week, the threat of nuclear war, decades of terrorism, more wars than I care to count, and don’t even get me started on the ERM crisis of the early nineties.
Now we’re finally waking up to the impact of global warming too. The UK regularly has hose pipe bans in cities that are waist-deep in water, because the rain doesn’t fall where it used to fall, because weather patterns are sensitive to the 0.6 degree change in global temperatures that has been reliably documented so far. Even in the eighties it was understood that the same phenomenen was causing the rains to fail in areas of Africa, and the damage continues.
To put your faith in one career path, to the exclusion of everything else sounds optimistic to say the least. Your first priority is to protect yourself from the vagaries of the geopolitical winds, and environmental change. the more you know, the more you can do, the safer you will be. Enjoy the journey that is your life, learn to appreciate the individual steps, because they may be all that you have.
Oh, and if you take care of yourself and can afford good healthcare then how long are you going to live? It’s kind of an important question when planning your life, but one that no-one seems to consider.
What about a hotel call-girl or a high-priced ballerina stripper? Plenty of job opportunities in Vegas.[/quote]
Darling, don’t listen to him. He’s crass and uncouth, the product of Australian roots and Canadian education.
You want interaction I suggest we go and live in Madagascar or somewhere and do something in tourism.
[quote=“Loretta”]
Your first priority is to protect yourself from the vagaries of the geopolitical winds, and environmental change. the more you know, the more you can do, the safer you will be. [/quote]
And they say ignorance is bliss?
Going back to the OP, are you aware of how many people that you woudl consider VERY successful started out late? Ray Krok who is credited with the McDonalds empire was a Milk Shake Machine salesman until at the age of 59 he bought the original McDonalds from 2 brothers who had no idea of the potential in their little burger shop.
The guy who set up KFC was in his 60s I believe when he became jobless and started selling his fried chicken out of the back of his car.
The point I’m trying to make is that, ifyou really want tohave a go at something, go and do it. Even if you stuff it up, at least you will have tried and you can always come back to teaching, or as pointed out in Loretta’s post just keep moving on to something else.
[quote=“TheGingerMan”]Good grief, wait till you have a few kids.:
[/quote]
Yea that’s another “problem”. My clock is ticking and I would like to have a career in place before I get married and have kids. For some strange reason, I have this idea that I have to have a decent career or be ‘something’ before I would be considered a worthy candidate for marriage. 
[quote=“Namahottie”][quote=“TheGingerMan”]Good grief, wait till you have a few kids.:
[/quote]
Yea that’s another “problem”. My clock is ticking and I would like to have a career in place before I get married and have kids. For some strange reason, I have this idea that I have to have a decent career or be ‘something’ before I would be considered a worthy candidate for marriage. [/quote]
No worries! - I got married before I’d even had my first real job out of college - and loak at what happened to me! 
Another good second post from Loretta.
I am not ready to divulge my dream career until I am ready to set out upon it. Sometimes it’s best not to share everything as people,even well meaning ones, as their “voices” can affect how you go about it.
I’ve shared it with a few people here, those who I know I can truly trust. Because I know they have a good sense of who I am. I would certainly agree with Loretta that had i gone straight into the dream career I wouldn’t have found out certain aspects of myself that I have been afforded by my travels and living abroad. In fact, I probably would have been quite messed up.
I guess I feel as I am 34, I ‘should’ be ‘somewhere’ in my life. Have something substancial to show for all my years. Also, I am getting older so time is becoming more and more valuable to me. Especially having freedom. Recently I’ve been strongly craving for freedom to pursue what I want to do when I want to do it.
I am also torn in some aspect as I like living overseas now. It’s hard to explain to family when they ask when are you coming back? It’s almost akin to a parent asking me when are moving back into the house? Why must we stay in our orginal countries for life? A lot of people leave their birth cities and settle in other places. So, why is it so strange to some people for others to settle in another country, aside from America and other G7 countries?
Okay, it’s a bit of a rambling off thoughts, but I hope you can see where I’m going with this. Besides it’s almost 1 am as I write this, so not everything is flowing perfectly.
A successful person is one who does what he wants to do. If a successful person’s dream is to become a half decent writer for example then he writes when he has the time. If it is to make films then he does that when he has time. He reads about the subject he is interested in while riding the bus somewhere. Whatever it is he actually does something towards his goal even if it is something small. In the process he learns about the subject and about whether it is really his thing or not. He also acquires skills and knowledge along the way. In the end he may make a a career out of it or he may not. In any event it doesn’t matter because he was doing what he wanted anyway.
Good job we didn’t cut your knackers off a few pages ago. You would have been too busy licking your wounds to share your wisdom.
I propose that bob be elevated to ‘almost a god’ status without having to go to the trouble of posting another million words first. Or go back to being the village idiot. Sometimes the fool has the clearest insight.
Excellent post, bob. Are you my uncle, perchance?
I have a confession to make…
I have always wanted to be a teacher, but changes in the certification program in my university made it impossible for me to do that with a double major and still graduate within the 4-year constraint put on me by my 4-years-only scholarships and grants which were the only means for me to get my education in the first place. I was talking about this shortly before graduation in June 2001 while walking from the School of Music with some band friends. The School of Music was right next door to the College of Education and a woman gave me her card and said to see her later and she could help me with getting certified.
I never followed up on her offer.
Just as well, I suppose. I don’t know how I would have done as a teacher if I had started when I was 22 years old. I do know that after being here for 5 years and having had my own full-day classrooms, both for preschool and once for an elementary school class (during a summer camp) I am itching to have my own classroom for good. I guess this means I am finally ready to grow up and embark on my career and leave Taiwan far behind (but not too far behind).
I plan to get certified in grades K to 8. I had wanted to go to France for a year or two so I could also get certified to teach French, but that will have to wait till later. The plan is to do the required two years or so in the US and then find something in an international school abroad again. I have confidence to face some issues back home (especially regarding money) finally so I can achieve this goal. Up until now, I was not ready to do it. I actually feel the same resolve for this as I did when I decided that I was coming to Taiwan. And I didn’t really have the money to come here then either. 
I’m considering giving up Taiwan one day to become a locksmith…I dunno what it is about the profession that attracts me…I can watch them for hours…its so stupid!
Wait. Are you talking about actual locksmiths or are you referring to those people who do key copying on those cool machines that go bzzzzzzzzz… bzzwhheeeeee… bzzzz… zzz…zzz…bzzz…wheeeeEEEE… grrrrrrriiind… bzzzz… hisssss…wheee… wheeee …whEEEE… bzzz… bzzzz… hsssss…
and then you finally get the little hand file to rassssp… rasssp… rassssp… skweeeee!
Cos that’s not a calling. That’s a fetish. 
Thanks Loretta. People don’t respond to my posts very often so I sometimes wonder if anybody reads them. Anyway, the tid bit of wisdom to which you refer is the basic principle along which my life is organized these days. It is working out pretty well. Basically I think that because of mass culture, or the educational system or alcoholic parents or whatever a lot of people place unrealistic expectations on themselves and suffer as a result. Lets face it, we live in the real world and the real world is often a complicated, difficult place. Its hard to do much of anything let alone live up to our grandiose expectations of ourselves.
The other thing I like about it is that it encourages you to think about what you really want, and therefore who you are, and it does so without a lot of extra stress. Think you might want to be a clothing designer? Well then, give it a go, draw some pictures, buy some fabric and stitch it together. Is the process enjoyable to you? Does it really satisfy something inside or was it maybe not quite what you thought? Either way is OK. Look around, try something else, maybe you’ll find something that is your passion or maybe you’ll try a million things and nothing grabs you forever. So what? Maybe you were a born dabbler. The main thing I think is that you are acting on your own genuine desires and not worrying too much what anybody thinks about it.
[quote=“bob”]
The other thing I like about it is that it encourages you to think about what you really want, and therefore who you are, and it does so without a lot of extra stress. Think you might want to be a clothing designer? Well then, give it a go, draw some pictures, buy some fabric and stitch it together. Is the process enjoyable to you? Does it really satisfy something inside or was it maybe not quite what you thought? Either way is OK. Look around, try something else, maybe you’ll find something that is your passion or maybe you’ll try a million things and nothing grabs you forever. So what? Maybe you were a born dabbler. The main thing I think is that you are acting on your own genuine desires and not worrying too much what anybody thinks about it.[/quote]
What you are talking about is very similar to an seminar I took at an organization called Landmark. Bit of a cult of personality going on there, but I disgress with that personal(biased) statement.
Anyway the idea is that many people think that, lets say for a good example, to be rich you have to do the following.
I do hard work
therefore
I have money
therefore
I am rich.
Where as they teach(if you want to be rich)
I am rich
therefore
I have money
therefore
I do what attacts money
The principle is that , like bob says, if you are being what you want then you will have what you want and you do what brings it about. Then they place emphasis on creating possibilities. That’s where people get lost because they have fallin out of creating possibilities. It gets deep, and long. But I was invovled with them for about 2 years or so. I did manifest what I was looking for, but overall the lessons/instruction I got from them has helped me a great deal and it was worth every penny I paid for. In fact, I was thinking about doing another seminar again since they have an office in Hong Kong.
Anyway nama I dunno about groups or fancy philosophies, all I am saying is do what ya dig and, if possible, look for a way to develop marketable skills in the process.
Wait. Are you talking about actual locksmiths or are you referring to those people who do key copying on those cool machines that go bzzzzzzzzz… bzzwhheeeeee… bzzzz… zzz…zzz…bzzz…wheeeeEEEE… grrrrrrriiind… bzzzz… hisssss…wheee… wheeee …whEEEE… bzzz… bzzzz… hsssss…
and then you finally get the little hand file to rassssp… rasssp… rassssp… skweeeee!
Cos that’s not a calling. That’s a fetish. [/quote]
oooh, I’m into picking locks, but wow…those machines make me go all…erm…ja.
What about a hotel call-girl or a high-priced ballerina stripper? Plenty of job opportunities in Vegas.[/quote]
Not a bad idea, but sorry, I am expensive!! 
You have two choices in life:
a) do you want to make money
or
b) do you want to be happy?
I’m sorry, but unless you are very, very lucky, you won’t find a job that combines the two. You’re either a starving artist or a rich, soulless businessman (oops, sorry, just insulted half the buxiban owners and engineers and corporate drones on Forumosa.com 
). Half the reason I came to Taiwan was to avoid the 9 to 5 rat race. Making a decent living working 25 hours a week, with lots of free time, beats working 50+ hours a week at job you hate for no good reason, only to die at 45 of a heart attack. You people are deluding yourselves if you think that working yourself into an early grave is going to make you happier. And don’t give me that “I only work hard because I’m financially insecure and afraid of poverty” because a) I grew up poor, too, and I’m not a greedy bastard, and b) use some fucking birth control so that you don’t wind up in an unhappy marriage to a Taiwanese wife (oops, just insulted half of the miserable husbands who dominate forumosa.com) and have to slave yourself to death to support 9 kids. People expect me to have sympathy, but I have no sympathy for slobs whose only accomplishment is sticking their semen in a woman and creating a child (anyone can do that), and expecting me to support them for their ignorant mistakes. It’s perfectly obvious that the only reason that half the males on this site still stick with Taiwan are solely because they made the mistake of getting bamboozled into a kids’n’marriage trap with a Taiwanese wife. Admit it, most of y’all hate this polluted little island, but only stick around because of your woman and the baggage that comes with it because you forgot to use birth control.
Oh yeah, and the reason I am still here? Because moving sucks and I am too lazy to move my furniture. Seriously. Moving to another country is a tough, difficult thing to do, and I don’t have the motivation. I am just too self-satisfied, comfortable, and lazy. I am a typical Taiwanese slacker. I complain about how much it sucks here but don’t do anything about it, because there is nothing I can do.
[quote=“mod lang”]You have two choices in life:
a) do you want to make money
or
b) do you want to be happy?
I’m sorry, but unless you are very, very lucky, you won’t find a job that combines the two. You’re either a starving artist or a rich, soulless businessman (oops, sorry, just insulted half the buxiban owners and engineers and corporate drones on Forumosa.com ). Half the reason I came to Taiwan was to avoid the 9 to 5 rat race. Making a decent living working 25 hours a week, with lots of free time, beats working 50+ hours a week at job you hate for no good reason, only to die at 45 of a heart attack. You people are deluding yourselves if you think that working yourself into an early grave is going to make you happier. And don’t give me that “I only work hard because I’m financially insecure and afraid of poverty” because a) I grew up poor, too, and I’m not a greedy bastard, and b) use some fucking birth control so that you don’t wind up in an unhappy marriage to a Taiwanese wife (oops, just insulted half of the miserable husbands who dominate forumosa.com) and have to slave yourself to death to support 9 kids. People expect me to have sympathy, but I have no sympathy for slobs whose only accomplishment is sticking their semen in a woman and creating a child (anyone can do that), and expecting me to support them for their ignorant mistakes. It’s perfectly obvious that the only reason that half the males on this site still stick with Taiwan are solely because they made the mistake of getting bamboozled into a kids’n’marriage trap with a Taiwanese wife. Admit it, most of y’all hate this polluted little island, but only stick around because of your woman and the baggage that comes with it because you forgot to use birth control.
Oh yeah, and the reason I am still here? Because moving sucks and I am too lazy to move my furniture. Seriously. Moving to another country is a tough, difficult thing to do, and I don’t have the motivation. I am just too self-satisfied, comfortable, and lazy. I am a typical Taiwanese slacker. I complain about how much it sucks here but don’t do anything about it, because there is nothing I can do.[/quote]
I disagree. If you do what you makes you happy, then your chances of success are much higher than if you just do something out of expediency. No job will bring 100% satisfaction, there will always be some part you don’t like or enjoy less than the others, but if you do what you what makes you happy, then there is a intrinsic enjoyment in what you do. If you aren’t successful, then at least I can say I did something I enjoyed. That’s why I got enough education so that I could pick the job/career/company that I wanted, not the one I had to settle for.
As for the family and kids bit, I think you’re just trolling. With an attitude like that you’ll be just fine until you hit about 40 or so and realize that you’ve got f***-all, career-wise or other and it’s a bit late to start over.
[quote=“Elegua”]That’s why I got enough education so that I could pick the job/career/company that I wanted, not the one I had to settle for.
[/quote]
Nonsense. Liberal arts majors try to pursue what they honestly enjoy and have the choice of, “Burgers or fries with that?” after they graduate. Nobody actually enjoys enrolling in Engineering or Science or for god’s sake Business classes but they make the big money and have their choices of careers. Nobody ever enrolls in an MBA program to learn or enrich their soul, but only for one reason - to make money. Life is a trade-off: either you pursue what you want to do and die poor, or choose a trade you slog through soullessly just to earn a living. Let’s be honest here.