Career or Love?

Our Dashing Fellows writer, Kenny, wrote a great article on Susan Boyle's recent success on Britain's Got Talent. In the comments section, Anthony wrote:

The real question for me is whether or not her newfound fame makes her overall life a happy/successful one?

Keep in mind she’s unemployed and has never been even kissed (!!!). Even assuming that she makes a few million bucks, and is able to live off of her success for the rest of her life, do you know anyone who would trade places with her?

This is a popular question, "Do you choose Career or Love?"

I did two surveys on Yahoo Answers (survey 1, survey 2), and asked,

Would you choose a life of accomplishment without love or a life of love without accomplishment? You can choose one or the other, but not both.

When I say a "life of accomplishment", I don't mean "got a raise at the office". I mean something as grand as the next Ghandi, the scientist who cures aids, the humanitarian who saves the lives of hundreds, the next Muhammad Ali to inspire the world, or anything legendary.

When I say a "life of love", I mean the best possible definition you can think of. Fairy tale or sex orgy, it's up to you.

Which would you choose? Both have 100% chance of happening, but you can only choose one or the other, not both. Which would you choose?

Twenty-two (22) people responded and more than half of them chose career. I was shocked! I thought I was the only one! I thought I was the Chosen One to defy the Ebenezer Scrooge syndrome!

I have selected my two favourite answers from the Yahoo community. Here's number one:

A career is a big deal. If you are lucky enough to have a real opportunity at something you love rather than something you have to do, you should take it. You can't be happy with someone else until you are happy with yourself. So take care of you, and if the person you love isn't willing to support you and work with you then it was never gonna last anyway.

Here's number two:

It depends.

For some people, their personal life is more important and it's what drives them. I'm one of those people, and if I would have to give up my girlfriend to have my dream career, I wouldn't give her up. And that's ok with me!

For others, their career and their success in their line of work is what drives them, like my friend Amy. If she had to give up a boyfriend in order to land her absolute dream job, she probably would. And that's ok too -- that's who she is, that's what's important to her.

Either way, what's important is that YOU are satisfied with the choices you make. If you choose something else you'll always be unsatisfied at some level.

So in response to Anthony's question of who would trade places with Susan Boyle, a lot of people would. The people who choose career are your Susan Boyles.

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**Related follow up,

Friend says, "Chasing a dream and living a dream are two different things." My response was,

For a person who's truly ambitious, there's no difference between chasing and having. In his mind, he already has it.