Your AI Roadmap

CHAPTER 3On Lily Pads and Rainbows: Job vs. Career, Paychecks vs. Income

I once had a friend who worked from 9 to 5. He clocked in at 9 a.m. He got offline at 5 p.m. He didn't talk about his work outside of work. The job didn't bring him joy. He got paid. The job was just a job. I found this exceptionally odd. “He really didn't care at all?!” I found myself thinking. I met him when I was in graduate school working voraciously toward my goals. I was maximizing everything I could in order to prioritize my career's success and was exceptionally passionate about my work. It wasn't about our age; it was about our mindsets. I was eager to have a career that I was passionate about. He had a day job and cared about his paycheck. In this chapter, we'll talk about jobs versus careers and paychecks versus income.

Some people use the term job and career interchangeably. Though related, they are not the same thing. A job is a specific project you do for money.¹ A career is “a field for or pursuit of consecutive progressive achievement.”² I think of careers as the journey crossing of a pond with a rainbow overhead and a job as one of the lily pads used to hop on as you continue your crossing.³ Jobs are helpful, for sure. But don't stagnate chilling on just one lily pad—unless it's a really great lily pad. The rainbow is the career: the overall path you want to take that matches your goals, values, and mission. In this metaphor, getting laid off or fired is being booted off the lily pad so ...