Chapter 5
Money Alone Won’t Make You Happy
What Am I Going to Do with My Life?
I really did not have a backup career plan after I ruled out law school. I envied my classmates who knew exactly what they wanted to do after graduation, who had a passion to pursue a career in medicine, or law, or business. I had yet to find my passion.
Because Tim was going to be living and working in Chicago, all I knew was that I wanted to stay there. With Northwestern’s help, I was able to land an interview with a telecommunications company, and the executive hired me on the spot. I was so thankful to have a job and something to do that I didn’t even realize until I showed up for my first day of work that it was in sales.
The office was at 100 South Wacker in downtown Chicago—and all of a sudden, I was a city girl. About the only thing I did that reflected my small-town background was refuse to pay to park my old cherry-red Volvo every day when I went to work. This meant I had to find a spot on the street, usually a pretty good distance away from the office, and walk through the snow and cold every morning to save a few dollars.
While my motivation to save money was the reason I didn’t want to pay to park, I had another incentive to work hard at my job, even though I didn’t enjoy it very much and didn’t know how successful I would be. When I showed up for my first day of work, the manager showed me a quota board; my name was on the bottom, below all of the other sales representatives.
“You need ...
