Since finishing my studies at Harvard and Oxford, I've watched one friend after another land high-ranking, high-paying Wall Street jobs. As executives with banks, consulting firms, established law firms, and major
corporations, many are now1 on their way to impressive careers. By society's standards, they seem to have it made.
On the surface, these people seem to be very lucky in life. As they left student life behind, many had a2 drink at their cheap but friendly local bar, shook hands with longtime roommates, and moved out of small apartments into high buildings. They made reservations at restaurants where the cost of a bottle of wine3 a college year's monthly rent. They replaced their beloved old cars with expensive new sports cars.
The thing is, a number of them have4 that despite their success, they aren't happy. Some5 of unfriendly coworkers and feel sad for eight-hour workweeks devoted to tasks they hated. Some do not respect the companies they work for and talk of feeling tired and6 . However, instead of devoting themselves to their work, they find themselves working to support the lifestyle to which they have so quickly become 7 .
People often speak of trying a more satisfying path, and8 in the end the idea of leaving their jobs to work for something they9 or finding a position that would give them more time with their families almost always leads them to the same conclusion: it's10 . They have loans, bills, a mortgage to11 , retirement to save for. They recognize there's something12 in their lives, but it's hard to step off the track.
In a society that tends to13 everything in terms of dollars and cents, we learn from a young age to consider the costs of our14 in financial terms. But what about the personal and social costs15 in pursuing money over meaning? These are exactly the kinds of costs many of us tend to ignore—and the very ones we need to consider most.
