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Objective career advice needed

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I'll try to make this as short as possible. I'll give some details about myself that would be helpful for someone willing to give some good objective advice.

 

I'm 22 years old, currently halfway through my business major in college. I am from a family of businessmen, and didn't give much thought to my choice of major (it felt natural to choose business, not because I loved it, but because I never had a strong desire to do anything else, and I was very curious about it). I'm from a very wealthy family, and there was always an expectation from others that my brothers and I would eventually run the family business. 

 

In my first year in college I discovered Objectivism after reading Atlas Shrugged, and fell in love with it. It was the sum of everything I unconsciously believed, and it answered important questions for me. In the following months I read all of Rand's fictional books and some of her non-fictional. During these months, I was very happy with the knowledge I was acquiring, but eventually I started feeling a little depressed (where I am now), let me tell you why.

 

Now, at 22 years old, I don't have any passion. In my childhood I was always very creative and loved to draw (had what people call a "gift"), and tell stories. But I don't necessarily love drawing or writing today. During my teen years, all I did was read self development, success and business books. And guess what? I`m also not very enthusiastic about my business classes either (i find them boring, despite of giving me useful skills to manage my money and raise my financial IQ which is fine). I have no interest in sciences, medicine or law.

 

After a very long introspection, I figured that I would love to work in a creative job that is dynamic and creates something meaningful and beautiful. I thought maybe, just MAYBE, I may be interested in architecture (or civil engineering), screenwriting, and painting (given my interests during childhood). However, I am more than halfway through my business degree and in less than 2 years I will have finished it. I think that giving up the degree in order to try the other things would be stupid, since I`ve come this far already. What is your opinion? Should I quit the business school immediately and search for a true passion?

 

Also, what is the best way to figure out what I really like? For instance, how will I decide between the 4 possible options I found above? I don`t want to waste more years in college just to find out that it isn`t for me. How can I experience a little from each, without wasting that much time and money? 

 

Thank you for reading, I appreciate it.

 

(Note: my university only offers business classes - I don`t live in the US, where most universities offer a broad range of classes).

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Having gotten both a business B.A. and MBA, I can very much appreciate your lack of inspiration from a business education. I think this kind of reaction/reflection is one of the reasons why business schools are seeing such a huge interest in entrepreneural programs.

 

I have a friend who's an artist (primarily realistic oil paintings, but her abilities span the artistic gamut). She's a huge fan of Rand's work (The Fountainhead being her favorite) and she's even volunteered at an ARI event in the past. She doesn't really have any business experience but she's starting to create ideas for putting together videos to learn to paint. Perhaps you and her could work together to join your business knowledge with her artistic knowledge and create a business together. You could help her plan the videos (e.g., by asking her questions around how to get into painting, share the types of art you'd like to be able to paint so she could use those as guides for the video content) and then be a guinea pig to "test" the effectiveness of the videos. You could even video yourself applying the concepts which could later serve as a good marketing testimony to the effectiveness (and also provide improvement ideas).

 

Doing something like this would make your business classes more relevant (because you'd be trying to apply the concepts), it would allow you to try out a potential passion (painting), and it would give you the opportunity to work with someone who shares some of the same ideals as you. If you're interested, PM me and I'll give you her email address.

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Would it not be possible to start exploring these other subjects without quitting your current business degree pursuit? If you can't start exploring other stuff without stopping pursuit of the business degree, could you perhaps take a semester off while leaving open the possibility to go back to pursuing the degree?

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What is your opinion? Should I quit the business school immediately and search for a true passion?

Seems like you're prompting for the following advice:

 

 

A cautionary tale:  A friend of mine kept changing his major and ended up with a big student loan balance.  For whatever reason he ended up having to finish a degree (any degree) by a certain date, and it wasn't in the field he wanted.  It hasn't done him any good in life/career.

 

I suggest (on admittedly limited evidence) that you finish your degree.  Unless you have something specific, e.g. you have an idea for the next Facebook, drawing you away and it's something you have to do RIGHT NOW.

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After a very long introspection, I figured that I would love to work in a creative job that is dynamic and creates something meaningful and beautiful. I thought maybe, just MAYBE, I may be interested in architecture (or civil engineering), screenwriting, and painting (given my interests during childhood). However, I am more than halfway through my business degree and in less than 2 years I will have finished it. I think that giving up the degree in order to try the other things would be stupid, since I`ve come this far already. What is your opinion? Should I quit the business school immediately and search for a true passion?

The reason you should go to college isn't to "be doing what you love". That's not the purpose of college. The purpose of college is to PREPARE you to do what you love, after you finish it.

If you think your business degree will help you in your future career, even if it's in one of those fields you mentioned (I think it will, but of course you should go by what you think not what I think), then you should finish it. On the other hand, if you think you can just as easily go into those fields without a college degree (I doubt you can), then you should quit.

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Here's my 2¢:

Quit school and stop racking up debt, and start working. In between working, do stuff: learn stuff, go places, read things, DO things. Interests aren't made by introspecting, they're made by trying things out. If you're wondering what you're interested in, no amount of thinking is ever going to tell you. Try things over varying amounts of time, and you will know automatically if you like it or not. Repeat.

But like Nicky said, spend your own 2¢, not mine.

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