Quote:
Originally Posted by namisgr11
It's a great and achievable objective for many to find a career that is rewarding, challenging, satisfying, and that pays very well.
Most people I know, myself included, have come reasonably close to this.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chillrob
I certainly have to dispute this. Maybe you have found such a thing, but I certainly came nowhere near that by the age of 40, when I started playing poker to pay the bills. Not many people have the ability to have a career that pays "very well", and many of those careers are not particularly satisfying for many people. I never had a job that fit either of those categories, and I'm a white male with a college degree in the US. Most people who don't meet those criteria would likely have a tougher time than me.
As chilirob noted, the "pays very well" is what makes the premise up for debate, and it's where I and several of my colleagues probably come up short. Pays well enough that I live high on the hog? No. Pays well enough that I pretty much never worry about money? Yes. (Buying an inexpensive house 24 years ago definitely helped.) I don't live check to check like some of my friends do, but I also can't afford to take a fancy vacation every year like other of my friends do.
Granted, I definitely know some people who have a high-paying job they don't exactly love, but it feeds them and their families so well that they're hard pressed to want to make a change. (I'm guessing my sister is in that camp.)
Feels like a version of this thread surfaces at least once a year, and I can see the allure and the drawbacks of each side. There are times when I look at a professional poker player and think, wow that would be cool to get good enough where I could play poker all day and make enough to live on. But then I also imagine what it would be like if in my current job, my earn fluctuated so much so that there could come a month when I get a bill rather than a pay stub. And that's where I have my ah hell nah moment when it comes to any dream of being a professional poker player.