Believable Work

"To work at what you love--a heaping up of joys." Rita Mae Brown

Most Saturdays, my parents and I go to Chick fil-A for lunch. Most of the staff know us and even remember our never-changing order. A 17-year old high school senior named Shaun was hosting this week, which means he greeted the customers, offered mints and drink refills. He stopped at our table to chat and ended up staying there for close to an hour. He told us he would like to have his own Chick fil-A store because he “would make lots of money.”

This is a young man who attends the local school of the arts as a voice major. He’s going to Ohio this week to tryout for a music scholarship to Baldwin-Wallace College.

A couple of things bothered me about this conversation, not the least of which was his seeming lack of a work ethic. He seemed to think it was fine to kill time chatting with us instead of doing the work he was paid to do.

Mostly, though, I was saddened by the fact that even before graduating high school, he had apparently already given up on his dream of a career in music. Conventional wisdom tells us that you can’t make a living in the arts, although evidence to the contrary surrounds us. It may be difficult, but it sure won’t happen if you don’t believe it can.

Most people who make a lot of money (however you define “a lot”) are doing what they love. If you love what you’re doing, you are likely to be good at it. And if you get really good at it, you can find a way to make money doing it. It just requires persistence and constant learning. What doesn’t?

©2006 Dixie Darr. All rights reserved