This is a really important life story I'd like to share with you. It is not mine, but I think we can learn so much from her adventure:
Once upon a time there was a small girl from India, raised by good folk and mentored to excel at school. She was pretty normal but studied hard. She followed the mathematics and science educational streams and passed her exams with flair, later going on to study Computer Science at university and gained excellent grades all along the way. In India, passing entrance exams can mean a big difference in your career prospects, and she (and her parents) knew that all too well.
Meeting her parents' expectations and getting a degree? I mark that as Life Checkpoint 1 complete!
Next, her first job was with a small financial firm in Mumbai which traded derivatives and equities, where she learned the basics of IT, software, and the technical details of risk management (which are better left for another post). It didn't pay well but as a first job it was important to learn everything she could. Perhaps most importantly, she was never satisfied and always expected more of herself (in life, work, and everything). So she kept her eyes open for other opportunities.
After a few years she had done well and decided to move on: the next job was with a bank. She was more experienced now and got a better salary. With this came a much better standard of living. I'll say that's Life Checkpoint 2 complete!
She was starting to get a taste for money and enjoyed the challenges at work, working hard, solving problems, and delivering solutions. She did so well that she moved on to another couple of jobs in quick succession, each time building on the previous salary. Now easily earning 3 or 4 times above her peers, she lived very well indeed.
I give that Life Checkpoint 3 complete!
| 1 | Money is useful for many things in life, to be sure, but when you are a young professional looking to go higher, it is so very common to view salary as a perfect metric of how much you have achieved. |
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It took time, but she was finally at the top!
Well, sort of. She saw another opportunity and joined an English bank and got a visa to work in the UK, and more specifically to join the bank in London. As you may or may not be aware, London can be a difficult and expensive place to live. Effectively, she reset her life ladder back to an earlier stage in her career. She may have been at the top of the ladder in India, but she was re-positioned firmly on the lower rung upon entering the financial ecosystem in London. She was back on the ladder at level 2.
You can probably guess what happens now: although the first few years were difficult, she gained skills in some of the newer technologies (well, those in use at the time), and moved on to a better job. Then there was another opportunity: she jumped into a contracting position offering a great opportunity to work on a new system, and her salary doubled instantly! An agile mind and the determination to get things done are often rewarded in finance. Going up again? Life Checkpoint 3 regained!
Contracting positions, she says, are great when you are young, because the income is substantially higher, and it is probably the only point in your life when you can risk it while having less experience. Times were good for her.
"It is strange and you get to feel money so quickly. At university I would spend little on food every week, only eating rice. And years later I think nothing of spending 25 dollars on just lunch. In your head you are hearing: I make so much money, it does not matter, I am worth that. And with each job the numbers get bigger and the value of ordinary things is becoming so distorted. Anyway, what is money? It is a utility to get something else."
| 2 | No matter what your background is, the more money you earn, the more you will use it to increase the quality of your accommodation, food, travel, etc. You become use to it so quickly. |
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This is where her story changes.
Her progression came to a halt. The problem is, after reaching such a height, at some point it becomes difficult to go any higher. As a contractor you get paid more but can't be promoted. Even for permanent staff, the ranks of investment banks are well defined, and the chances of getting to Executive Director and above are generally slim to none...
For her, there was no checkpoint 4. She saw it as the end of the road.
...so what to do?
She continued to search for the next big job, but it never really appeared. She had gone through so many jobs and she was worth so much money! How could that be? She was frustrated but then started to re-evaluated everything:
"I was no happier on £120,000 than when I was on 1,200,000 rupees. What was I trying to achieve anyway?"
| 3 | More money is fun, but above the salary required to live your life relatively well and have what you need, the returns on 'quality of life' diminish rapidly. |
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She continues to work today, but looks at other things than just salary :)
Ending
The game of life, as it is usually explained, is to get a degree, get a career, do well, and make lots of money. Then maybe have a family, and while you're at it, teach your kids to follow in your footsteps. The game is to focus on the future and wait it out for opportunities and then take them, to get a higher score, of sorts. I don't know if this is really a bad thing or not. I guess we all need something to aim for - but what would the alternative be? What would that look like? There must be a better way. Tell me what it is.