Warren Buffett: Focusing Only on Your Resume Is Like 'Saving Up Sex for Your Old Age'

Warren Buffett: Focusing Only on Your Resume Is Like 'Saving Up Sex for Your Old Age'

원문 출처 : http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/252794

Warren Buffett loves his job. And so when it comes to career advice, Buffett somewhat predictably thinks that you too should love your job too. In a lecture at The University of Florida's business school in 1998, Buffett told students to stop thinking about their damn resumes and just think about what they want to do. And then said do that. 

Here's Buffett, via Buffett FAQ:

I get to work in a job that I love, but I have always worked at a job that I loved. I loved it just as much when I thought it was a big deal to make $1,000. I urge you to work in jobs that you love. I think you are out of your mind if you keep taking jobs that you don't like because you think it will look good on your resume. I was with a fellow at Harvard the other day who was taking me over to talk. He was 28 and he was telling me all that he had done in life, which was terrific. And then I said, "What will you do next?" "Well," he said, "Maybe after I get my MBA I will go to work for a consulting firm because it will look good on my resume." I said, "Look, you are 28 and you have been doing all these things, you have a resume 10 times than anybody I have ever seen. Isn't that a little like saving up sex for your old age?"

So without putting too fine of a point on it, Buffett's basic idea is that you shouldn't skip out on doing something today because you think you'll be able to do it better in the future. Work a job you love, or work to find a job you love, and don't pursue something because it will — or, well, it might — look good on a resume.

Your resume is an abstract representation of your career and accomplishments that may or may not matter, depending on how you want to leverage it. Your actual job is something real you can love right now. If, that is, you work to find that job. 

Buffett continued:

There comes a time when you ought to start doing what you want. Take a job that you love. You will jump out of bed in the morning. When I first got out of Columbia Business School, I wanted to go to work for Graham immediately for nothing. He thought I was over-priced. But I kept pestering him. I sold securities for three years and I kept writing him and finally I went to work for him for a couple of years. It was a great experience. But I always worked in a job that I loved doing. You really should take a job that if you were independently wealthy that would be the job you would take. You will learn something, you will be excited about, and you will jump out of bed. You can't miss. You may try something else later on, but you will get way more out of it and I don’t care what the starting salary is.

When you get out of here take a job you love, not a job you think will look good on your resume. You ought to find something you like.

And look, we get that a major criticism of Buffett is that he's a hypocrite and loves to tell other people to do things he himself doesn't do (like pay high taxes). And while the lesson here is at times a bit, er, vivid, it's pretty sensible: either be happy or don't, and never do something now just for the promise of some ambiguous payoff later. 

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"좋아하는 일을 하라!"는 말은, 너무나도 당연한 어찌 보면 교과서적인 phrase이지만, 현실을 살고 있는 많은 이들에게는 꿈 같은 얘기이다. 나는 내가 좋아하는 일을 했을 때에는 불투명한 미래에 대한 불안감은 있었지만, 물질적인 성공의 보상과는 별개로 하루하루 행복했다. 

매일 같이 남들은 침대에서 뒤척이고 있을 아침 6시에 퇴근을 하고, 8시 30분에 기상하고... 지금 생각하면 초인적인(?) 생활이었음에도 "오늘은 어떤 변화를 만들 수 있을까?"라는 생각에 매일 아침이 즐거웠고, 매일 아침 눈을 뜨는 순간에 힘이 넘쳤다. 그리고 함께 고생하는 팀원들이 있었기에 든든했다. 

하지만, 개인적인(?) / 집안적인(?) / 사적인(?) 이유로 인해 내가 좋아하지도, 잘 하지도, 그리고 passion도 않는 일을 하는 지금...  잠은 전보다 2배를 더 자 4시간 정도를 자고, 남들과 같은 일상적인 생활을 하게 되었지만, 매일 아침 눈을 뜨면 새로운 시작에 대한 기대감가 아닌,  "또 하루가 시작이구나..."라는 고단함으로 시작도 하지 않은 하루를 받아들인다. 

하루에도 열 두번씩 내 스스로에게 얘기한다. 

 "내가 잘 하는 일은 이게 아닌데..." 

"내가 좋아하는 일은 이게 아닌데..." 

"내 젊음을 내가 행복하지 않은 곳에서 낭비해서는 안되는데..."

"살기 싫다..."

더 우울한 얘기는 생략.

나 하나만의 삶이라면 자유로운 선택을 할 수 있을텐데... 

그러나 나 말고도 너무나 많은 이들이 더욱 불만족스러운, 행복하지 않은 환경에서 하루하루를 스스로에 대한 질문과 고난으로 보내고 있을 것이라고 생각한다. ('믿고 있다'라는 표현이 적합할 것 같다.) 내가 힘이 드니 나보다 더 못한 상황에 처한 이들을 생각하며 견뎌보자는 다소 미성숙한 생각이지만, 이렇게라도 해야 "내가 있는 이 곳을 행복하게 내가 만들자"라는 쪽으로 생각의 전환을 할 수 있기에...