Next week, I will be speaking at my son’s Elementary School as part of Career Day.  I know he lobbied hard for me to get this gig (I’m not so sure he didn’t tell them that I was an astronaut).  So I really don’t want to let him down.  The goals of career day, according to the vast materials I was given, are to educate the 4th and 5th grade students as to what your chosen profession is and what it entails and to also encourage them to follow their dreams and assure them that they can be anything they want to be when they grow up.

If I had a dollar for every time I heard, “You can be anything you want to be when you grow up,” I would have enough money to retire already.  We’ve all heard this adage countless times in our lives.  But do we believe it?  Did we believe it as kids? Do we believe it as adults?  Did we end up being what we always wanted to be as a kid?  I polled fifteen of my friends and asked them if the profession that they’re in now is what they always dreamed of doing.  Any guesses as to how many said yes?  Two. Two out of fifteen.  Or roughly 13% for the mathletes reading this.  Only 13% of folks that I talked to are actively engaging in what they had always dreamt of doing.  By the way, those two professions are police officer and teacher…two of the noblest jobs there are, in my humble opinion.

Why the low percentage?  I know many of us (myself included) finish school, land a job and receive that first paycheck.  And what a cool feeling that is, until you realize what FICA is and what it means to your take-home pay.  Then somewhere along the way, for me at least, it became about chasing the money and the titles instead of the passion I had as a kid.  In school, I always excelled at English and writing classes and struggled to earn D’s in all math and finance classes.  Can you see the irony in the fact that I worked in finance for the first twelve years of my professional career?

If you’re in the 13%, God bless you!  I’m happy to see you doing what you love.  If you’re part of the 87%, keep reading.  Many times, we become trapped by the money and advancement.  As time passes, we accumulate responsibilities as well.  Cars, mortgages, insurance, family obligations…the list goes on and on.  And through this, we sometimes feel like we pass our point of no return.  The money drives the lifestyle and the lifestyle demands the money.  It’s a vicious cycle.

But here’s the thing…it’s never too late to be what we always wanted to be.  Sure, there may be financial concerns that need to be addressed before we take the plunge into something different.  But we can start small.  Do some homework.  Research the industry that’s interested you since childhood.  Give it as much or as little attention as you can allow at first.  The bottom line is that it’s a start.

And I don’t care who we are, how old we are, or what our current economic status is.  If we follow our passion, our true passion, and use the gifts we’ve been given (my definition of a gift in this instance is when passion meets skill), the money will come.  It may be a while and it may not be a lot at first, but if we stick with it, any one of us can be wildly successful.  We only have one shot at life.  And while making money is very important, so is making a difference.

My hopes for Career Day?  Number 1: That I help to convince the students to believe in themselves and that they truly can be anything they want to be when they grow up.  And Number 2: That I don’t have to follow Aaron Rodgers during the presentations.