Passion & "Money"

Dear readers,
This week we would deviate a little with respect to previous posts about CVs ...etc.
We shall be talking about Passion & "Money"..... as the title refers.
While chatting with a friend during the week, we got talking about careers when i got the title Passion & "Money".
The fight between Passion & "Money" has being a great conflict for young graduates whose intentions are "now i have finished school, i need to make all the money". Yes we need to make all the money and that we shall do. But the question is where are we making the money? Is it where our passion lies? I have seen instance where law graduates and medical graduates just to mentioned a few have diverted from practising to become cashiers in banks or customer service representatives for telecoms companies or banks as it were , just because of the money. I have seen people who have sold there passion for a pot of portage (salary pack) because all they are after is just to get the money. If the reason was not money, my question would be what would it have being to make you leave your passion? I wont erase the fact that most of us did not study what we wanted or probably should i say what our passion is but, i can assure even at that, no body's passion would out rightly be to become a cashier etc.

Did i hear you say passion can die? Yes i agree and sure so in a country like Nigeria where we are praying things starts to work the way they should.

I remember while i was still in the University as an undergraduate in my third year as a biochemist thinking of what the world had in-stock for my future. I practically could not see anything clearly but then loved using the Internet, which later became a thing of passion. I loved it so much I help people browse over night to get project topics and material for seminar and projects. (Let me not forget to add, i got paid for it). This is no time became a passion and landed me my first job before i finally graduated in ISP. As a graduate i was happy and when i opened up my employment letter, my remuneration was six thousand Nigerian Naira (N6,000) per month. This was June 2002. At this point i was cut in-between, should i reject this offer or i should go for it, because weighing all my options it was not the best for me. The major question was "is it going to pay my bills"? of which after transportation for the month i had little below one thousand Nigerian Naira (N1,000) left. Some weeks after one of the senior staff who i was looking upto said to my face a a local dilate called yoruba "sebi o wa ko se ni" meaning "I taught you came here to learn" which in actual terms it means "shut up, i am talking, do what i told you, at least you came here to learn". This was because i noticed some wrong in what she did. At this point i felt disappointed, i told myself, as a graduate something told me "you should not be getting like this" but something kept me going. This is what i would call passion (not trying to be in-modest).
At a point in 2003 when the salary was increased to sixteen thousand Nigerian Naira (N16,000), i was owed salary for about seven months (7months), but i went to work everyday including weekends. (was able to survive because the passion was bringing me PP...lol)
My staying back in that company then, taught me all i have used in my entire career so far. Its being the bed rock of all the technology i know of which i have worked with in different companies. I remembered the first day a Linux server was installed in my presence, i had a notebook and i was jotting down every single thing my boss was doing. Today i still work on Linux servers but as a platform for Telecom companies. Then it was just a proxy server, cache or bandwidth limier/manager.

The reward of passion might not be immediate just as we have seen from the last US election where a black man is now the president elect of the most power country. One of the reasons for this achievement i tell you is the passion Barack Obama has, which is to bring change to the United States. He could have called it quite because of his skin colour and because of the records. This also being a passion of the entire black race since the 19th century or beyond and it paid dividend in the 21st century.

I have two questions for you...this you can apply in your career and in your life as a whole.
1. have you considered what your passions is?
2. are you following you passion?

Passion is what keeps you when the "money" stop coming on that job
Passion is what keeps you when the money in the "money" is not enough even though it comes.
Passion is what keeps you when you are insulted on the job
Passion is what keeps you when you are tired, worn out and rejected
Passion is what tells you the next step to take
Passion is what tells you when to leave and when to stay back i.e. when to quit.
Passion is from the heart.
Passion is rewarding no matter how long.

In conclusion, i would like to submit to you, its not too late to harness your passion. ......
.........................Go for it.... Just do it.

Someone asked; can your choice for "money" later become your passion? This we would talk about soon.

Cheers

Segun.