What would you do for free?

After high school I would travel the country and speak to high school and college students. The bulk of my speeches revolved around what the student wanted to do when they graduate. At the end of the presentation I would always have a line of students that would ask various questions related to the topics in the speech but one question that was repeated the most. “What do you think I should do when I graduate?” This question revolved around income, and job prospect availability

This question is asked several ways and is geared to helping people find what they would do regardless of compensation.

I would ask them what their passions where, what they were interested in, and what they have thought about doing since they were young. Some had answers that were congruent with each other, others had answers that were all over the place. The ones with congruent answers, to me, appeared to have a clear vision and a chief aim of where and what they wanted to do. There was not much I could offer them, they were already on a great track.

However, the ones that were all over the place I could provide some guidance. I first asked them to visit with their guidance counselors for direction. But then I would follow up with this thought provoking question.

“What would you do for free?”

Many would look at me and say I don’t want to work for free, I want to get paid. I want to go after a job that pays me the most. After they let their reactions out, I would prod further and ask for more clarity to my questions. What do you like to do for fun? What activities do you like to do, what shows do you watch, what type of books do you read? Out of all the subjects, shows, books, which ones would you do, watch, and read without being told to do so?

This is where everything started to open up for them. They would go on and on about different school subjects, outside activities, books, TV shows, and movies they like.

From there I would dig deeper and ask what about these topics made it easy for them to do without being asked or forced to do so. Some answers were: It’s easy, it’s fun, and I enjoy it. I love it. Etc.

I then asked would you do these activities for free before doing another activity, say one that you really don’t like, but get paid to do so. Some would say no, they would do the money task first, when asked why, they said because they get paid. So getting paid was important to them, but the activity was not.

I then asked what if you could do one of the enjoyable activities and also get paid for it. Going back to the previous question, which task would you do first? Duh! They would say, the one I like and get paid to do at the same time.

This is when the light started to come on for them. They started to realize that the career they should be picking goes in line with the activities and subjects that they enjoy.

I told them they were on the right track of thinking. The next step was to speak to their counselors and start to ask what kind of careers I can do that are in line with these activities. Once you find that answer, you next need to ask, what I need to know in order to be considered for one of those jobs.

How many of you are doing something you do not enjoy only because the compensation justifies it?

How many of you would be willing to sacrifice the pay, in order to do something that you really enjoy?

Some people believe that they may be too old, or not smart enough to move on from where they are. This type of thinking already puts you in a losing situation. Instead start thinking how can I?

I want to encourage you to find your passion, find the job, the career that you would do, even if you did not get paid for it!