What’s More Valuable – Experience or Money?
Is the phrase ‘follow your passion and the money will come’ really true? Which is more important, experience or higher income? Coach Lyqa Maravilla and Joyce Pring shares their real stories on how they dealt with this dilemma and navigated through their own career paths.
Things to Consider When Starting Out
There something wrong about telling people that you should just follow your passion even when you’re good at it. We should stop telling kids that “You should follow your passion” because you’re setting them up for failures. Not to say that you should forego your passion altogether but there’s a smarter way to go about it. (JP)
One of the decision that I made is to decide to be part of a smaller community just because I know I will be given more responsibility and on paper, it would look better. That was my goal - how can I make myself look good on paper. It’s a very practical approach to things. We make these decisions, whether we’re taking a job for skills, for experience or for money, we just have to be brutally honest with ourselves. If this is my purpose, with me being here, there’s no other point of me being unhappy not doing something that I am passionate about. (LM)
Though, when you’re doing things for money, sometimes, you feel a little cheap but don’t kill that feeling by buying expensive stuffs that you can’t afford. Don’t forget your initial goal - to save enough money, to buy you the freedom to take a risk, to take a chance on yourself. We have to break it down into smaller pieces and make those decisions along the way. (LM)
“Ask Yourself, “What do I need and what do I want in the long run?”
When it comes to experience, every kind of experience is a learning method. I have not used physics or algebra in my recent memory, but I have used the discipline that I’ve gotten from trying to understand that and trying to remember all those equations. You don’t have belittle any experience. (JP)
Your parents, your guardians or the people in your life, they have experience longer than you and most of the times, it will be good for you to listen to them. They do have some gems that they are willing to impart to you that you probably have not considered because you’re too passionate on the current thing that you’re doing. (JP)
Everything is a learning experience - from the good you learn what to do; from the bad you learn what not to do. Have the freedom that maybe this is just going to be part of my journey but not my end-goal. (LM)
“It doesn’t have to be a direct path to where you’re supposed to be. It’s the discipline of walking that made me strong enough to where I am right now”
Realistic Foundation of Success
○ Adaptability and agility will help you succeed in life. It’s not your job, it’s not the money that you get, it’s not the job that you’re in, it’s not your boss, it’s literally not just your CV. (JP)
○ You grab whatever opportunity is right in front of you. It’s never about being 10 steps ahead of everybody else but it’s looking around at all the smalls tiny steps you can take in front of you and just focusing on that. (JP)
○ You have to allow yourself the freedom to explore and the freedom you make mistakes along the way. The more you live, the more you understand that it’s just a part of your story. (LM)
○ Use you free time wisely. Just because it worked for Joyce, or my path is like this - you can’t walk the same steps that we did then and ensure that your life is going to turn out the same way. Go and have your own journey. (LM)
“You’re not supposed to figure everything out in your early 20’s. You’re not supposed to know exactly whether experience is better than money. Don’t put that weight on your shoulders. It doesn’t work that way.”
In Your Early 20’s Career Phase
○ Be inquisitive. Be curious about the world. Be just unapologetically a student of every thing that you can be a student of - in your early 20’s that’s the best way for you to explore. (JP)
○ The goal of your being is to live life so purposeful - that if you die tomorrow you’d be happy because you knew you were doing substantial things with your life. (JP)
○ Don’t be afraid of you were doing those mistakes. Better to make those mistakes in your 20’s than in your 40’s, right? (JP)
○ People define success in different ways. If your definition of success is you being in the fullness of who you are, then maybe experience is a good way to lean into. If your definition of success is money, then all the roads will lead towards that – you will decide primarily based on the amount of money that’s promised to you on that track. (LM)
○ Give yourself a fair shot at doing what you are supposed to do. You can’t be everything all at the same time but be the you that you can be in that season of your life. (LM)
From Episode 88 of Adulting with Joyce Pring: “WHAT’S MORE VALUABLE - EXPERIENCE OR MONEY?”: