Should you follow your dream or money?

whats you're dream?

Revamp western civilization, build cities, vertical agriculture, switch all of the united states to thorium power, colonize the moon and mars, perhaps even some gas giant moons and Canada, all in the name of America. Shit on every other country for the rest of history. Basically a modern renaissance but only for America, specifically so that other countries feel like shit and do it for themselves, thus increasing all of their senses of self worth.

hold on there elon.

Why? Why should you ever limit your dreams. Goals are one thing, but you should never limit what you WANT to do.

follow your dreams and make money

dreams. it takes much much longer and you'll probably be miserable and barely scraping by for 4-8 years, but i think it's worth it.

your friends will start out making 50k, while you make 20k. eventually your friends will be making 125k, absolutely nolifeing, while you make 60k doing what you love waking up every morning with a smile and a sense of purpose.

u missed the joke

I somewhat agree, I think it's just that for many people their "dream" career is not at all what they thought it would be like.

And sometimes careers that you thought were boring are actually fun.

I skipped college and rolled right into the workforce. I thought following the dream meme was dumb, I wanted to make money and support myself and become successful.

I'm 24 now. I make $80K/year working for what is basically a small private equity group (2 partners, 6 employees). My bonus is about another $40K. I have a wife and daughter on the way.

I hate my career. It's great money and it allows us to do great things, but I am constantly working. I'm basically always working, even when I'm not at work. But then again, I'm never working, because even at work there isn't stuff to do. It's kind of like being "on call" 24/7.

My goal right now is to tuck away enough money into my retirement and brokerage accounts and pay off all of my debt so that I can "retire" within 3-5 more years. I'll still work, but I'll be doing my side gigs for spending money instead of *needing* to work to get by.

I hardly think that scraping by in your dream field is a good way to live, but the other extreme isn't great either.

See this is the example of going the opposite route of dream career and it backfiring.

Ideally you find something that's in the middle. Pays well and somewhat enjoyable.

These careers do exist.

you described me right now, my friends are making 50k or some of them 500k a year (the coke dealers) and I'm still cooking in restaurants for 25k a year, but I can't say I've tried anything I like much better.

I do know exec chefs here that make 60-120k a year, you eat for free, and you spend your life doing something more stimulating than my other education which is in accounting.

am I crazy? I just want to cook awesome food for people, be the boss, and die with some interesting stories

yet its such a brutally hard and stupid life to live that a wiser person would just do accounting.

i just dont know man, this thread addresses the main question in my life now

If you truly love food and making it, why not open a restaurant.

You're already doing the restuarant grind, might as well be the owner.

its the probable end goal for me, I'm learning more about the business to get to that point.

I feel to be a "Chef-Owner" you'll have to at least have been a chef first, for a few years... I'm still a line cook.

I'm obviously scared of all the stories of all the restaurant owners that go bankrupt, but all the restaurant owners i know are kind of incompetent weirdos, so maybe statistics don't mean much vs. the kind of person I know I'm competing against.

I've never really been interested in anything else so may as well go all in

If you've been a line cool for a few years, you must be doing something wrong if you haven't been promoted or found a job as sous or executive chef. If you're over 26 and not an exec, you'll never make it in that field.

Why you will fail to have a great career | Larry Smith

youtube.com/watch?v=iKHTawgyKWQ

I don't have any dreams so I just try and make as much money as possible so I can eventually do nothing for the rest of my life.

My dream was to make a living fishing as a guide/charter while being a successful YouTube star in the fishing niche.

I played it safe by getting a degree in Business Management and now work in management at a port. I make good money, live near the ocean, and can afford to own a boat and go fishing every weekend (I haven't made it to the fishing boat part yet but I'm getting there).

In the same boat, but with an engineering degree.

Got fired from my last job. I hated it. Place my friend was working at was looking for cooks. Figured why the hell not since it paid more than unemployment. 6 months in and I love it.

From an engineering perspective I love the mechanics and process flow of cooking. I have 0 creativity though. My plans are either to get into management at a corporate place or start my own pizza shop. Pizza shops are a dime a dozen, but I feel I could make it with a simple but solid menu that is made from scratch.

>I wanted to be an actor for some time. I took lessons, got a few small parts, etc... It was fucking horrible. Anyone who thinks acting is easy has never been on a film set. I can explain more if anyone is curious.

Sure. What's it like?

Thought of an answer for this earlier. Stick with dreams if they allot under 6 figures. If they don't surpass that or you just may have been given the God chosen gift of pursuing that dream which happens to be over that figure. If latter enjoy a rich long life and bountiful offspring. If former enjoy working 1/2 as hard, but investing moreso in wellbeing/overall enjoyment in life (knowing you're just like the rest of thhe cucks that fell for that meme).

Always had a dream of a rural farmhouse innawoodsy and growing vegetables, fucking the horses and raising chickens.

Have a steady unionized factory job now and well underway to have a sizeble downpayment

Yeah it's called federal employment.

Truth is, most people just don't have the money, connections or resources to follow their dreams.

I always wanted to be a pianist, I loved the instrument since a child, yet my family was always too poor to buy me a piano/keyboard (they're very expensive here) or pay for lessons, so I grew up always thinking about playing the piano, yet never playing it.

I knew from a young age that I must focus on making money first and that it will open new venues for me and my passion. So I wageslaved when I was 16 and 17 while going to school and saved every bit of money I got. Started my first business at 18, importing chinese products from Alibaba. Now I'm 22 and make over 250k a year while working very few hours a week.

And guess what, I bought a brand new Steinways and Sons model B grand piano for 80k last month and am already getting professional lessons since 8 months and I'm having the time of my life.

Dreams are not meant to be for money, they're meant to be for happiness.

Nah, man you're not crazy if you enjoy doing it and provides keep doing it. That's great.

That's cool, you should keep trying to get into the fishing niche since you landed a job still there.

OP, why not both? I'm about to graduate with a CS degree and landed a nice job with a tech firm but will still have plenty of freetime in the afternoons and on weekends to work on my own projects. And use the money to help fund my own ideas. Or at least that's my plan anyways. Have the main steady job and have a side revenue stream doing what I love would be amazing.

>being financially independent is not a dream.

when i mean that is more about not having to worry about being poor/homeless

Get a government job and retire after 20 years, in the meantime build your business on the side, within those 20 years you got enough time to build something big

Hey, man, can you explain to me what's your working process like? 250k/year is crazy good for 22 y.o. person.

I had a great idea of what to import. Got good quality products for low prices and I quintupled my money (I only invested 5k in the beginning) in less than a month. I then invested the 20k (after import taxes etc.) again and quintupled it again in about 2 months.

I contacted some old ladies and men that were selling shit like water and fruits on the streets (Central America, they're not hobos) and sold them my products so that they would sell my shit on the street in the city without me legally hiring them and being responsible for them.

I had a bit over 100k after around 4 months of work and just continued to import shit that would sell. My initial idea died down a bit because of the demand slowing down and competition appearing.

I have now over 150 of these old ladies and men that sell my shit all over the city (4 millions live here), everywhere you go you can see my products. All I do is buy shit on Alibaba and meet these old ladies once a week to sell them my products, they're happy because my products sell well and they can make a great living by selling them (well over 4-5x the minimum wage).

I'm thinking on how to expand my business to other cities right now without me having to trust a retard.

I want to build a energy drink production company here as well but the regulations are a pain in the ass to deal with.

You are 100% their bitch. You do what they want when they want how they want. Even as a big star, unless you are a producer, then you gotta shut the fuck up and take the direction.

> Insane schedule that changes literally the night before
> Often means being somewhere at 5/6am
> 12hr day is a short day, work days often reach 16 hours or more
> The outfits and makeup get annoying
> Living out of hotels and trailers
> The work itself actually is emotionally exhausting. You can't really fake it. You have to really get into the emotion. For example if you are supposed to be really upset, you gotta actually get really upset. Then hold that emotion for 20 - 50 takes of the same scene. It is very exhausting.
> Doing the same scene 25+ times can make you mad

There's more. It's not like working the coal mines, but it's a tough profession with a lot of being told what to do for long hours, and the emotional part is quite draining.

> Dreams are not meant to be for money, they're meant to be for happiness.

Well said.

Also wish I knew what you knew about the Alibaba sales business.

So, you just bought some cheap-ass product from Alibaba and resold it to some small local retailers, right? Splendid idea. Maybe I will find my niche someday.

But sounds amazing. Maybe I should bite the bullet and buy some shit for 300-400$ and see what I can do with it.

Only suggestions I can give is, look around you, look at people, look at your country's culture, the problems of people and think what product would they buy, look at other cultures/countries and try to implement something that exists there but not in yours.

Oh and learn Alibaba in general, it can be a bit annoying and confusing at the beginning because you need to learn how to communicate with chinks well and how to find legit Manufacturers.

hurr durr space, huhu elon musk

This

This is a great thread.

I was being forced by my parents into medicine, and my life was hell. I hated biology, and studying it was a nightmare for me. However, I always loved programming and literally create shit for my relaxation.

Now, fresh out of college I am working with several startups, getting contracts for 2000+ and doing what I love from home. Also not being dumb and investing for the future. I love my life right now.