Job: Livelyhood or Life!

Funny...ain't it?!?! You start as wanting to be a pilot or a famous painter or the fastest bowler in the whole wide world but then one day, actually there are many such "one days", when you find your self doing something ENTIRELY different. That's an understatement. I mean bloody damn totally opposite of what you would have ever imagined to be. Of course, there is a very practised why of it but then who are we trying to fool?

I grew up seeing my dad leave for work at 7:00 AM and he'd be back by lunch. Then there was a curfew in the house (zero decibel zone) between 3:00 pm - 6:00pm. We all would then do something in the evening. It was fun. We never had the "best money could buy" stuff but we had enough and the time to enjoy it. Simple.

Today, as I am almost at the altar of starting my own professional life, I wonder if the choices that I made were right. There are plenty of questions to answer. Do I go for money or do I go for a job profile? Do I lay emphasis on the place of posting or do I consider the world to be my playground? Do I look at the culture or sell my soul to the highest bidder?

One thing is clear. A job to me is just that. A Job. A means for me to do what I want from my life...outside of work. Can't put it better than my boss at my B-School, "The 8 hours of work are only meant for earning enough to support what I desire to do with the rest 16hrs of my day."

Fair? Isn't it?