Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Giving Your Life Away

I'm a student of Economics deep down to my soul. As luck would have it, I chose to major in ECON before I knew that. I love efficiency and the art of making things productive. I also grew up in a family that owned its own businesses -- knowing the empowerment and struggle of self-employment as a way of life. Lately life has been giving me a renewed love of small enterprises-- that risky business that costs a little more of your time and brain space, but gives you more than just monetary rewards.

We live in the world of the possible. I can communicate and transact instantaneously across the globe from the palm of my hand, and I'm not even rich. All this possibility, in my mind, sort of begs the question "what do we do with it?"

What am I doing with the best I have? How am I using my brain capacity? Do I write down those brilliant ideas and take the time to give them a shot, or settle back into the sofa for more re-runs of Seinfeld? They say if you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life. Well, I think you'd probably find a few of your days "work" no matter what field you love, but certainly a lot less of them. It makes me wonder though, how many of us have really researched what it would take to do what we love, or given starting or participating in small business a shot? Do we really know what would it take to create our own wealth from something we have passion for?

Are we trading our dreams for something safer? In our attempt to avoid risk are we sacrificing that stuff that makes us feel alive?