In a scene in David Fincher’s 2010 film The Social Network, Armie Hammer’s Winklevoss twins get a meeting with Larry Summers, 27th President of Harvard University and former U.S Treasury Secretary. They complain Mark Zuckerberg stole their idea and Facebook was their brainchild. Summers is less than impressed and tells them to let their imaginations run away with them on a new project. The main thrust of Larry’s dressing down of the two men: Get over it.
What stays with you is the line ‘Harvard undergraduates believe that inventing a job is better than finding a job’. It’s a line delivered in a dry, condescending way but the idea of inventing one’s own job is surely a notion that would get imaginations running freely.
The Uninitiated or unemployed are surely disadvantaged due to their lack of steady income and work experience, this is doubtless. However what they do have is a blank canvas for which they can paint their wildest fantasies. Being beholden to a career alters your mindset and suddenly every juncture and turning you chose to follow is dictated to you by what you think you can do.
So what would You do? Given the choice what would you like to get paid for. Perhaps for many it’s the idea of getting paid to do something we do easily and naturally. Paid to talk, paid to eat or paid to sleep. Well it just so happens that all of those things are viable options and if you’re serious why not go for a job as a mattress tester, professional speaker or flavour taster.
For others it could be an opportunity to make money out of something they do well. Perhaps you win limbo competitions on the regular or indeed are a fantastic Rod Stewart impersonator. Utilise whatever it is that makes you special and monetise that talent. Not everybody is blessed with a crazily pliant spine or the face of a famous musician, though.
Doing something you love to do is what most people think of when they think of inventing a job that is perfect for them. Luckily something most people love is money and with all jobs you get a fair bit of that. Other things like travel, freedom, friends and family are all things most people love
The perfect job would be something that encompasses all three things yet also helps people in the process. If your job is one that maximises joy for others as well as yourself then you’ve got yourself a perfect job.
Being your own boss, owning your own business, then? Is that the secret to professional satisfaction? Knowing you are contributing to your legacy to the enabling of others and earning the money to live doing what you love and what you believe in. is there anyone more purposeful than the business owner?
It was this, then, that Larry Summers was alluding to in his drawl tirade against Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (played by Douglas Urbanski and Armie Hammer, respectively). The opportunity to leave and breathe your revenue source. This is where we should aspire to be. Looking for a platform in which to market yourself, skill or business? Look no further: The Job Auction. Creating a public profile to market yourself is free. You can then apply for as many roles you as you wish and stand a chance of being noticed as the fab freelancer/business owner you are!
