Find what you love
You've got to find what you love, Steve Jobs tells students at Stanford University, and I applaud him for doing so.
I think there's far too much pressure on children to map out their life at far too young an age. There are two factors that have brought me to this conclusion:
- Choosing A-levels and University degree courses at age 17 or 18
- No-one I know (myself included) has ended up working professionally in the field they studied at that age
18 is too young to decide your whole life. When you're 18, you certainly feel as though you know enough to plan your life, but as you age this soon becomes obviously wrong. In fact, the older I get, the more I understand how dumb and naive I am and always have been. As I get closer to 40, I start to appreciate that I shall never be as wise as I'd like to think I could be, but at least I shall understand how wise I'm not. Of course you can't tell people to wait until they're 40, either. My advice would be not to rush. I'd urge school leavers to consider working or volunteering or doing a bit of both - and not just travelling for travelling's sake, either - just to broaden their horizons and understanding of the world before they choose what to do next.
Colleges tend to welcome older students; don't be afraid of returning to education when you're older, when you'll have a better understanding of what you want to do and more motivation to do it.
People change as they get older. The subject you enjoyed at school, and decided to study to degree level, loses your interest. It gets overtaken by other interests, other priorities, by events and changes in society and technology. I can't think of any person I know who works professionally in the same field they studied while at university. If you want to get the most from your education, take the time to decide what it is you really want to learn.
Steve Jobs is right to tell young people to find a subject they love, something that really gets the sparks going.
"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice."
I can't express it any clearer than that. Place a very high value on your time. Every experience is precious; value them all.
