I agree, I would rather enjoy my work than get paid a lot of money to do something that was uninteresting and not challenging.
I have been thinking about this for the past few days after seeing a job advertisement that's billed as the best job in the world. Basically, Australia is offering to pay someone 100k to go to an island for 6 months, do a a little yardwork, do some interviews, and play for 6 months. While it would be nice to take a vacation, I am enjoying going to school and studying engineering. So it really wouldn't be worth it for me to get behind a year just for a six month vacation. Sure, I would enjoy it for a month or two, but after that I would want to get back into some actual work. And once that happens, the only thing that would keep me interested in staying would be the money that I was getting.
"... Basically, Australia is offering to pay someone 100k to go to an island for 6 months, do a a little yardwork, do some interviews, and play for 6 months ..."
Also diving and the sharks are pretty active this time of year. The other way of looking at it is by taking a 6month setback for the opportunity of certain payment allowing for free time later on to work on your product - delayed gratification.
That's a good point, but I'm just in a time in my life where my major goals revolve around school, and since engineering is pretty regimented at my school, it might set me back nearly a year. Although sharks and scuba diving both sound really tempting... Oh well, I would probably have better odds winning some lotteries than getting this job.
Had never heard of this blog before, but great read. Thanks for submitting BRM.
What always gets me are the people obsessed with "secrets to success". But over and over again, it's been shown that the only "secret" is putting in the time & effort. And even then you still need quite a bit of luck and exceptional timing.
I fall for The 4-Hour Workweek not because I want to work less, but because I want work less at what I don't like.
Markus Frind represents a lost opportunity to me; in that position, I would have spent half my time expanding business around Plenty Of Fish and half my time around risky new ventures (for a million dollars a year, you can afford a good programmer or two).
I have been thinking about this for the past few days after seeing a job advertisement that's billed as the best job in the world. Basically, Australia is offering to pay someone 100k to go to an island for 6 months, do a a little yardwork, do some interviews, and play for 6 months. While it would be nice to take a vacation, I am enjoying going to school and studying engineering. So it really wouldn't be worth it for me to get behind a year just for a six month vacation. Sure, I would enjoy it for a month or two, but after that I would want to get back into some actual work. And once that happens, the only thing that would keep me interested in staying would be the money that I was getting.