Scott Schimmel (00:02.466)
One of the most common, I think, mistakes for what we do with kids is we forget to help them think through how to pay the bills. So there's different kind of sets of advice that young people actually get. I hear this from them, and I can remember this from myself, and I've also given this advice. Things like, whatever you do, make sure you love it. Make sure it's an expression of your passion. Whatever you do, do what you love. Find your passion and you never work another day in your life. Those sorts of like...
sentiments sounds really smart, but they're not a complete picture of what a young person needs to think about. I remember being young, being a teenager, and I felt very clearly, I think, because of where I grew up in South Orange County, that the top priority, especially to be a man and to be a father and a husband that I wanted to be someday, the primary priority was
to make sure I could pay the bills and a lot of bills. Nice house, gated neighborhood, country club, that was the kind of lifestyle that I grew up in. So I neglected all those other sorts of things. Like do what you love. What does that have to do with anything? Do what you're passionate about. Well, I'm passionate about having nice things. I mean, that's to the teenager mind, that really was about as deep as I got. But underneath that and behind that were other things that were really important to me. Things that I valued.
things that I was passionate about, things that I wanted to do, but didn't feel like it was a part of the equation. Felt like something you would do maybe in the outside time, around the fringes, in your spare time. Things like working with kids, things like teaching, things like coaching sports. And don't make your life about that. Don't make your career about that. Go ahead and spend most of your waking time making money and the rest of the time paying the bills.
But the problem is for many people, especially these days, when education costs, I mean, my alma mater, it costs an extraordinary amount of money to go to school at University of San Diego, an extraordinary amount of money to go there. And the idea of a liberal arts education continues to be, go to this place, in this environment, you're gonna not only kind of discover yourself and find yourself, you're also gonna learn how to think and learn how to operate in this world and have this global perspective. And that is, I actually believe,
Scott Schimmel (02:31.294)
That to be true to some degree, but I think we over index on that. I think we over sell that concept And I'm sure if you're listening to this you would agree or you'd be able to come up with your own perspective And what I want to help young people do is have a really thoughtful approach To clarifying and discerning how to spend their lives how to spend their time on one side Just it doesn't matter what you love just go and do
something that pays the bills and pays them well. Now, the other side, it seems like this dichotomy of do what you're passionate about, pursue arts, pursue nonprofit work, be a social worker, be a sociology major, be a psychology major, those sorts of jokes that continue to be told. The idea of pursuing your passion means you're gonna be maybe happy and fulfilled, but broke as a joke. So.
A mistake that I see young people make, many of them, is by just pursuing their passions, just pursuing their interests and their values, and not considering or really being wise enough to understand how much life actually costs. Our youngest daughter is gonna go to this field trip pretty soon through the Junior Achievement, which is a national organization. They have a local branch here, and I've been chaperoned to this field trip in the past for one of my older kids.
And it's an awesome day. There's it's like a mini town, a mini economy, and every kid gets a different job. There's bankers, the jack in the box. There's an airport, there's a news, there's a mayor. There's all these different jobs in this simulation throughout the day. You have these different scenarios and you have to address them. You have to pay rent. You have to pay the lease. You have to pay the bills. And it's, it gets kids to start thinking about this perspective that life actually costs money.
Well, the Junior Achievement has another program. It's for high school kids. I believe it's called the Finance Park. And it's a similar idea of a simulation where kids come on a field trip, but the setup is very different. You as a kid, when you walk in, you were given this persona, this character to play for the day. And that character might be, for example, 34 year old single woman who has two kids, ages this and that. And the simulation throughout the day is you have to go throughout the day.
Scott Schimmel (04:52.342)
You have to commute to work. You have to, and you have a fixed amount of income, monthly income, and you have to like literally go and pay the tax man. You have to go and pay rent. You have to pay money and ride public transit. Part of the simulation is like your kid gets sick in the middle of the day. You have to figure out a way to get to school and pick them up or send somebody. And by the end of the day, I've been there once and there's this like very sober.
realistic view of what it costs to live life. And the point hopefully is not to demoralize them, but it can, especially in San Diego. The point is to increase perspective and include how you're gonna pay for things into part of the perspective, part of the story. And that's, I think, the key part.
There's this concept that was first coins by Jim Collins in this book, Good to Great, got it around here somewhere. And it's this idea of a hedgehog concept. It's for organizations, but you try to imagine this Venn diagram, you try to, with this Venn diagram, find this mixture of what you can be, your company can be best in the world at, what you're most deeply passionate about. That's another kind of circle in the Venn diagram. And then the third part would be your economic engine. And it's a kind of a community,
like a company approach to another concept. It's a Japanese concept. Maybe you've heard it's called Ikegai. And it's a similar Venn diagram. And it's a way of looking at what you're passionate about, what you're interested in, what the world needs, and what people are willing to pay you for. And it's a really, really useful practical discernment tool if you use it well. If you really process each one.
So how do you understand what the world needs? How do you see the different pathways that your skill set could take? How do you understand what you can contribute? How do you understand what you're interested in and what you're passionate about, what you're willing to put effort into? And ultimately, what does it pay? What does it pay? I remember early on in new school, mom got really upset with me when I was given this pitch through a bunch of moms about, hey, we have this curriculum that can help your kids process who they actually are and what makes them come alive.
Scott Schimmel (07:13.046)
And whatever she heard in there triggered a sense of fear for her. She explained later and she got really agitated and really upset and just said, you know, the last thing I want is my kids to get the message that they can be anything they want to do. And because they're going to be broken, they're going to be living at home. It was just like, I was like, Whoa, pump the brakes. And what I've always wanted to do for young people is help them balance all these different poles, these different kind of gravitational forces.
Because a life that does pay the bills and yet lacks passion is not a life well lived, nor is a life that's ultimately going to lead to success. The research shows if you're doing work just for work, just for the money, you will not achieve as much or be as fulfilled in that line of work. And if you're just pursuing something you're passionate about, but it doesn't pay the bills, you're right, it doesn't. And in that tension, in that polar, those polarities pulling in different directions. I think there's a great sense of clarity. So.
I'm going to leave in the show notes, I could guide them the model, the four different circles of the Venn diagram. And I'd love to hear your thoughts. How do you guide a young person through those different perspectives and conversations and we'll be back next week with another conversation about how to guide kids well.
