Is there a definite answer to the question: “What to become in life?”
I don’t know.
But there’s one thing I do know and that is: this post is not part of another advice epidemic on the internet.
It’s your choice to become whoever you want to be. The key, however, lies in knowing where and how to look for the answers.
Personally, I encourage you to first spend sufficient time understanding yourself and then decideing on what you really want.
That’s what this post is all about.
The Fault In Our Star(t)s
Let’s try to analyze a common observation.
You graduate from high school and find yourself in a dilemma, trying to figure out what to become in life. There are just too many options.
Your next step could define whether you’ll become an artist, engineer, or an accountant.
You probably like to study the Life sciences, but your heart skips a beat while imagining yourself playing a guitar on the stage (or the piano, whatever works for you).
You’re good at one thing, but you’re interested in another.
So do you use your strengths, or do you follow your interests? Do you apply what you already know, or do you learn something new? Do you plod on the same old road, or do you chart a new path for yourself?
Questions like these can push you into a flummox.
Further, each stakeholder in your life has a different vision for your future. Before the dilemma ends, you end up somewhere, preparing for a long ride to the promised land.
Most of us have been there—in one way or another. In such a situation, what is the best course of action?
One may be tempted to say,
If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.
But this suggestion applies only to certain kinds of people and must be taken with a pinch of salt.
So then what?
To answer that, you first need to understand the metaphor behind becoming a Vase versus a Clay oven.
The Vase vs. Clay Oven
Look at your life from the perspective of value-creation.
What is your value? Or rather, if you sum up everything you possess—not the tangible objects but the intangible competencies—how much value can you generate?
The difference between a vase and a clay oven is in their ability to create value.
A beautiful vase is carefully crafted using the carving skills of a potter. The vase itself has no role to play in deciding its final shape.
The ultimate goal of the vase is to be used as a decorative piece, to hold plants or flowers, and spend the rest of its lifespan doing that one thing well.
A clay oven, on the other hand, is barely a piece of art. It may have been put together callously and with use assumes its own random shape—probably even an ugly one.
However, the oven has the potential to wither through heat and toil and transform itself into a piece of sturdy equipment capable of being put to use for several different purposes.
If you were given the resources to create either a vase or an oven, what will you choose?
If you want to cash in quickly, then the creation of an oven could be dubbed as a futile investment of time and effort, when there is an option to create a spectacular-looking vase right out of the clay.
You can make a vase, paint it red, etch some gold sparkle embroidery on its surface, and voila! Here’s an artifact that could probably sell in thousands.
But nudge it a bit carelessly and all you might be left with are a thousand pieces of broken clay.
The vase creates a one-time value for itself. This may be good in the short term when you are just beginning the journey.
But the clay oven is a value-generating machine. You can use it as a resource to perpetually create other value-generating items.
Both items are formed of the same material, and yet, they are polar opposite in terms of their ability to generate value.
Become whatever you want in life—an artist or an engineer—but ensure that you make yourself capable enough to generate value in life.
So then, What to become in Life?
Just the version of yourself which can create the most value. Yep, it’s that simple.
Take a look at your life and reflect on who you truly are. Can you use what you have to create value for yourself?
When someone asks, “What do you do?” ask yourself, “What do I really do, and not just to make a living?”
Are you still in the formative stages, or have you been transformed into a vase that you did not want to become?
If you’re young and deciding on your future—ask yourself what kind of value do you see yourself generating in your life for others and yourself?
Your skills, certifications, name, and associations are not going to help you much if, due to any reason, the vase breaks.
The only thing that will help is your ability to create value for yourself. And that is also the only thing which can set you apart from everyone else in this world.
In fact, know that you don’t even need to be bound by the education you received (in this metaphor, the hands and skills of the potter).
You also don’t need to replicate what others have done before you. You’re better than clay because you have a functional brain.
“What to become in life?” is a question that you must answer by exploring what is out there, figuring out what works and what doesn’t, realizing what fits with you, and then being the most authentic version of yourself.
