Another friend of mine recently joined the blogging world, his name is Kurnia Angsana, but we all call him Cun-Cun. He asked me a question about how I came about deciding on my future plans. Well, thanks to that question, I responded with this email (partially edited), which contains some of my thought process and reasons:
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How I came about finding out my current career and why not something else?
- I’m thankful that from an early age, my dad pushed me in the right direction. He saw that I was good with technology, and directed me there, so I kinda grew up knowing what I thought I wanted to do.
- The bad part of this, is that he sort of said, well you’re good in tech, but u suck in business …. not having a chance for me to prove that I could learn and get to like doing business / being my own boss.
Why I want to change directions right now?
- Which brings me to a few years ago when I began to have a family. This started opening up more thoughts in my mind. Having a Computer Sci. job doesn’t feel that enjoyable anymore. Of course, I still like being in IT and stuff, but I find that working for people takes away time from my family, and the fact that technology grows exponentially andamp; you just need to be up to date at all times takes away lots of energy some time, while in other fields, you might be able to slow down your learning process since the growth isn’t as explosive as technology. (this is my opinion, might not be true).
- Living paycheque to paycheque, dependant on someone else paying me, predictable income doesn’t seem that attractive to me anymore. I don’t want to live a predictable life, retire and that’s it. I want to life life to the full, spend time with my family, do exciting things…
What do I want to do next and what does Indonesia Vs Canada have to do with this?
- That’s why I’ve been thinking really hard these last few years about business, network marketing, consulting etc, and whatever possibilities that could make me spend more time with family.
- Indo and Canada come into play, because in Indo there are people who can help out around the house with my wife and son, thus giving me more time to actually get something done, whilst in Canada, I have practically no more spare time.
Some thoughts and reasoning:
- Get God’s direction at all times before deciding on anything.
- Make sure that whatever I’m going to do will be enjoyable. I’m finding out that even though IT is what I like doing, I would have no problem leaving IT for day trading, export imports, consulting, business in general, because I’ve researched more, looked around and can grow to enjoy it.
- God’s direction may be different for different people, maybe some are positioned to work and grow to be CEO / CIO’s etc, some will be successful businesspeople, but I believe that God has given us free will for a purpose, that we have an option on what we want to do.
Deuteronomy 8:18b – “… It is He who gives you the ability to produce wealth.”
That ability is in us, so whatever we do, with God’s help and tons of hard work, will be successful. Once you get what you want to do, get confirmation of it, then do it with all your strength. I believe you will succeed.
- Research as many different things as possible and if possible try them out for a bit. You’re bound to find things you like and things you don’t like. Maybe you can combine them someday.
- It might seem that I’m dissing working life, but don’t get me wrong, I totally support working for other people too. People have different personalities, some who need an adventurous lifestyle, there are also some who need peace and structure, etc. If God put you in a working environment, then He must have a plan for u to grow and be a leader in there, CEO, VP, Director… settle for nothing less.
- Don’t get married too young 
It’s fun to have a family, but it’s even better once you are set on your career to support your family. Once you have a family, it becomes clearer and clearer that relationships and time are more important than what we do / money etc. If you don’t have a family yet, really focus on your career, and once you have your own family, really focus on building a strong family.
- Income should not be your primary goal for life, it should be a strong foundation for building your family andamp; relationships with others. A well known Indonesian pastor, Petrus Agung, once said “Money is a powerful amplifier”, when you have it, people will listen to you. Then you can say what God wants you to say.
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