Aprender como empreender

Paul Graham escreveu um ótimo ensaio sobre como fazer aquilo que você gosta de fazer.

Ele começa explicando as expectativas irrealistas que são incutidas durante nossa educação sobre o futuro trabalho que cada um exercerá. Em seguida, discute sobre as frustações inerentes de se ver forçado a trabalhar naquilo que não gosta.

Concluindo ele apresenta maneiras de transformar sua vida de maneira que você pode ser aquilo que deseja ser, com a resalva que a parte mais difícil é descobrir exatamente o que realmente se deseja fazer, e não por causa do prestígio ou dinheiro.

Trechos interessantes:

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Occasionally adults would come to speak to us about their work, or we would go to see them at work. It was always understood that they enjoyed what they did. In retrospect I think one may have: the private jet pilot. But I don't think the bank manager really did.

The main reason they all acted as if they enjoyed their work was presumably the upper-middle class convention that you're supposed to. It would not merely be bad for your career to say that you despised your job, but a social faux-pas. That's a working-class attitude.
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In fact, if you admit to yourself that you're discontented, you're a step ahead of most people, who are still in denial. If you're surrounded by colleagues who claim to enjoy work that you find contemptible, odds are they're lying to themselves. Not necessarily, but probably.
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Another test you can use is: always produce. For example, if you have a day job that you don't take seriously because you plan to be a novelist, are you producing? Are you writing pages of fiction, however bad? As long as you're producing, you'll know you're not merely using the hazy vision of the grand novel you plan to write one day as an opiate. The view of it will be obstructed by the all too palpably flawed one you're actually writing.

"Always produce" is more than just a test of earnestness though. It's also a heuristic for finding the work you love. If you subject yourself to that constraint, it will automatically push you away from things you think you're supposed to work on, toward things you actually like. "Always produce" will discover your life's work the way water, with the aid of gravity, finds the hole in your roof.
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Expect a struggle. In high school they act as if choosing a career were straightforward. Actually, finding work you love is very difficult, and most people fail. Even if you succeed, it's rare to be free to work on what you want till your thirties or forties. But if you have the destination in sight you'll be more likely to arrive at it. If you know you can love work, you're in the home stretch, and if you know what work you love, you're practically there.
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