What if God asked you to take a pay cut?

On a recent vacation to Ireland, I struck up a conversation one evening with a guy in a pub while out listening to some live music. Perhaps it was the Guinness that led him to tell me his story, or maybe he had kissed the blarney stone and been given the legendary gift of gab.

He shared with me that he had gone to Oxford to earn his master’s in history, but he had somehow ended up in the wheeling and dealing world of credit and banking. Here he was, traveling all over the world, buying $30K watches just because he likes watches, and paying off a new home in just a few years. As far as anyone could tell, he was doing grand (a word they use a lot in Ireland).

The truth, he confessed, is that he is quite unhappy and unsatisfied. He explained that he makes a purchase, hoping to satisfy some longing, and it always turns up empty. He sometimes wished he could work in the field in which he had studied back at Oxford. He was happy then. Maybe he could be an archaeologist. That would be lovely (another word they use a lot in Ireland). But the starting hourly-rate for an archaeologist is something like $12. [continue at highcallingblogs.com…]