Posted: May 07, 2012 11:53 pm
Do whatever you would find most fulfilling.
It's all very well trying to fit what you do now into some great plan, but you'll find plans change whether you want them to or not - whichever path you take.
True if you go down the academic path and it doesn't pan out for you, you may find yourself later wishing you'd "gone for the money" while the chance was there, but on the other hand if you go down the business route and it doesn't pan out you'll likely wind-up just as broke, only with the added regret of not having studied something you really loved.
Basically, there's no point trying to think of this choice you're making as being a decision on where you want to be several decades from now, because there are things that are inevitably going to happen between now and then that you can have no idea about until they happen and which will change the outcome of choices you make now in ways you cannot possibly predict (indeed they may even make some seemingly important choices utterly immaterial in the long run). That (as they say) is life.
I'm not saying you should make no attempt to plan for some kind of future for yourself, but just be aware you can only really make choices on behalf of the you of right now, not on behalf of some hypothetical 50-year-old you who in reality is not present to give their input.
It's all very well trying to fit what you do now into some great plan, but you'll find plans change whether you want them to or not - whichever path you take.
True if you go down the academic path and it doesn't pan out for you, you may find yourself later wishing you'd "gone for the money" while the chance was there, but on the other hand if you go down the business route and it doesn't pan out you'll likely wind-up just as broke, only with the added regret of not having studied something you really loved.
Basically, there's no point trying to think of this choice you're making as being a decision on where you want to be several decades from now, because there are things that are inevitably going to happen between now and then that you can have no idea about until they happen and which will change the outcome of choices you make now in ways you cannot possibly predict (indeed they may even make some seemingly important choices utterly immaterial in the long run). That (as they say) is life.
I'm not saying you should make no attempt to plan for some kind of future for yourself, but just be aware you can only really make choices on behalf of the you of right now, not on behalf of some hypothetical 50-year-old you who in reality is not present to give their input.