The Best Career Advice I Ever Received

5/15/2017
Selena Maranjian, Keith Speights, & Daniel Kline

You can go further in life with less pain and trouble if you learn from other people's experiences and advice.

I'll tell you one thing: Don't ever give anybody your best advice, because they're not going to follow it. -- Jack Nicholson

Many, if not most, of us, are interested in how we might find and land the perfect job for ourselves, as well as how we might keep our job and advance in it. Here, then, are three Motley Fool contributors sharing the best career advice they ever received. Whether you follow the advice or not is up to you, but give them some consideration, at least.

Work for passion and fulfillment, not money

Daniel B. Kline: Most people spend more of their life working than they do doing anything else. Your job takes up at least a third of your day, at least five days a week, and for many of us, the commitment runs so much deeper than that. That makes it odd that so many people don't place much value in actually liking what they do.

An early mentor of mine, my boss at the overnight camp I attended for six years and worked at for six, was not a particularly talkative man. He led by example, showing us that all work was worth doing and that picking up rocks and putting them in the back of a pickup truck for disposal (an actual task) was as valuable as running the camp (something a few of us would go on to do in various fashions).

The big advice he shared -- and it was more through his actions than any Yoda-like spoken wisdom -- was that money was a secondary factor when it came to picking a job. Pursue things you love, things that make you happy, and while you may not get rich, you will be fulfilled. Working just to pursue money leaves you open to misery because being well-off, or even wealthy, does not make up for having to spend your workdays doing something that's unfulfilling.

Read more
View Count 1,450