I recently interviewed John Strelecky, author of The Why Cafe. The interview was related to Strelecky's message to young people coming of independence with the intent of making a decision on what they would like to be doing with their adult and professional lives.
My interview with Strelecky reminded me about a story shared with me by an elderly friend of mine. She shared with me about how she had once made the decision to sell her jewelry at an expo in California. My friend enjoys making her own brand of jewelry as a hobby. According to her story, she was strongly advised by one of the organizers to reconsider because there were too many jewelry retailers at the expo and that she wouldn't make any sales. She told me that she signed up for the event regardless, and ended up making a small fortune in one day. The point to her story was that she followed through on what she was passionate about, and what she found were people who were appreciative of her craftsmanship.
According to John Strelecky, too many young people coming of age are pursuing college and vocational training they are not passionate about. Consider these statistics, 30% of college freshman are estimated to drop out of college in their first semester, and 64% of professionals under twenty-five years of age were found to be unhappy in their jobs.
Strelecky believes that the reasons for young people pursuing degrees for which they lack passion for is because they have been led to believe that these degrees will be profitable in the long run. According to Strelecky, pursuing training solely for the belief that it will be profitable leads to college students taking courses that they dislike, and sets the stage for professionals in occupations that they unhappy with. I agree with Strelecky's assessment because, any professional field can be rewarding to the right professional. Pursuing a college degree based solely on profit usually turns out to be a disappointing experience. Business is about service to others, and being effective at being of service to others involves practicing a great deal of empathy. Besides, if you are not pursuing your passion, you are not addressing your needs. If you are not addressing your needs, how can you begin to help others address their needs? Our passion for any discipline is what compels us to go above and beyond in being of service to others through what we do.
Strelecky also adds that another driving factor for young people pursuing college degrees they really have no interest in taking, is their parents and guardians. According to Strelecky, a significant number of parents and guardians give their children irrational advice on what studies to pursue, when they have no experience in that profession. This phenomenon makes sense, given that most people have a tendency to make decisions on how they feel towards a particular situation, absent of an understanding of the facts. I can see why a significant number of parents will push their children towards a degree that they believe will lead the student towards making more money in their future. From time to time I work with college students who are contemplating changing their course of study to another major they believe will be more profitable after college. Usually they will share with me that they were advised by a parent, fellow student or sometimes a professor that their current course of study is a waste of time, or a more common reason being that they will only be able to find a specific type of work with their current field of study.
For situations like these, Strelecky recommends that people follow one rule, which is to find one or two people who have excelled in your field of interest and follow in their footsteps; a simple and effective approach that is no doubt demanding in application. It is also an approach that forces people out of their heads, and engaged in reality through the process of fact checking. The mere act of identifying someone in your field of interest who has succeeded and following in their footsteps, is being able to identify an approach to success in your field of interest that been proven to work in the past.
In the spirit of April being Autism awareness month, I asked Strelecky about his thoughts on adolescents and young adults diagnosed on the autism spectrum and the rule still applies. In this case find an adult with a diagnosis on the autism spectrum, someone who is independent and thriving in the adolescent's field of interest, and then assist that adolescent in following the path that the adult has taken.
Ultimately, when a young person seeks out a person who has excelled in their field of interest, the very process is scientific, as that young person will have the luxury of adopting what has worked and disregard what has not worked. While the approach of following the crowd for the sake of getting by is simply an ineffective and romantic notion.
