Guest Blogger: Kenneth Leow - The Pursuit of Career Actualization

This is an often quoted study by authors Robert J. Kriegel and Louis Patler. They did a research of 1500 people over a 20 years span. Their objective is test how following one’s passion in our career choice & the degree of difference it makes in one’s life. 

At the beginning of the study, the group was divided into 2. One group will be starting their career for the prospect of making more money now... in order to attain what they wanted in life later. The other group chose their career for the opposite reason – to pursue what they wanted to do now and worry about the money later. 83% chose the first group and 17% chose the latter group. 

20 years later, the authors discovered some startling results: There were a total of 101 millionaires from the entire sample size of 1500. But what was startling was that 100 of those 101 millionaires came from the second group – those who went to pursue what they loved! 

Of course not everyone is so lucky to choose what they like while starting their careers. Folks of my generation remember the hard work & toil our parents put in to raise us so for the majority of us we chose our starting careers to put food on the table & to pay our rent. However the generation after mine is definitely more fortunate. Many have economically viable parents and have chosen schools & careers to pursue their dreams and passion.

Question:  What path did you choose for yourself? If applicable, what paths are your children choosing?   OR, what path will you encourage your children to choose?