A modern career is not a straight line; it is a coordinate system made up of skills, interests, and market demand.
My Interpretation (Wisdom)
The modern career is no longer a straight path of “choose the right industry → join a good company → keep getting promoted.” AI and technological development have broken many paths that once seemed stable. A career today is more like a coordinate system of skills, interests, and market demand, and you need to find your place in it.
The core of a career choice is not “find the right job,” but “accumulate transferable capabilities”—professional skills that do not depend on a particular company or position and that let you create value at any coordinate. Quitting to start a business is not the only option. The key is to understand the nature of business, focus on solving problems, and increase your value.
Many people say, “Don’t turn your passion into a career; you’ll ruin it,” or “If you take it seriously, you lose.” These are among the absurdities I most oppose. If turning an interest into a profession that can legally earn money ruins it, perhaps it was never a genuine interest—at most, it was enjoying the easy fun or following a trend. A genuine interest means enjoying both the pleasure and the frustrations and refinement that come with it. A profession creates value and meets needs in the market. If you build sufficient depth, in the internet era it is difficult never to find people who appreciate your work.
There is another thing many people do not want to admit: the underlying force that drives your passion for work is often not salary, but “the feeling of being needed”—knowing your presence and effort can improve someone else’s life. That can help you get through a difficult period more than an extra NT$100,000 in annual salary.
Strategy and Methods (Knowledge)
A New Coordinate System for Careers
Replace the traditional “industry → company → occupation” career path with “community × capability × distinctiveness.” Choose communities that broaden your perspective, build capabilities that create market value, and develop personal characteristics that help you stand out. An individual’s career is like exploring an ocean: adapt flexibly and keep learning.
Transferable Capabilities
Professional skills that do not depend on a specific company or position are the core competitiveness of a Super Individual. Use critical thinking, AI tools, and effective learning to create value in different contexts. What matters is understanding the nature of business and focusing on solving problems.
The Feeling of Being Needed
The deeper need behind work is not salary, but knowing your presence and effort can improve other people’s lives. Being busy can mean your value is recognized; having nothing to do may mean a crisis in one’s sense of purpose. Proactively “look outward” and “work for yourself”: discover your impact at work and turn experience into future growth.
Related Content (Information)
Course Scripts
- 05 | How to understand and navigate the coordinates of a modern career
- 11 | Super Individual does not mean telling you to quit and start a business
- 50 | Redefining work: it turns out it is about more than salary
Articles and Newsletters
- Who is Paul Millerd? Giving up a US$200,000 salary to self-publish the bestseller The Pathless Path
- 2026-02-18: Who is Lannuo? From photography freelancing to living in New Zealand: identity change after dissolving a 10-person company and taking semi-retirement
- 2024-10-05: Is remote work and digital nomadism right for you? A three-question quiz and seven years of freelance experience
- 2024-04-29: Choosing what you are good at while sacrificing what you love is a life trap
- 2025-06-20: As AI grows stronger, how should we choose a major? Which jobs are most at risk?
- 2023-09-25: What remains when you remove your job title? How to design distinctive labels and keywords for yourself
- 2023-09-16: National Cheng Kung University interdisciplinary program graduation speech: believe in education again, see the truth, and love life through three growth challenges
- 2020-09-06: A philosopher’s new understanding of life: why are young people lost, why are middle-aged people greasy? Desire theory
- 2020-03-09: S01EP04: The career-achievement coordinate system is changing: find your community, develop capabilities, and amplify your distinctiveness
- 2020-03-05: S01EP02: How to evaluate where to work: the People, Work, and Money three-light model
- 2020-03-02: S01E01: How to choose a career: the self-goal-path model
- 2020-11-03: S01E46: Why do we work? Not just for a salary, but to feel needed
- 2020-11-14: S01E42: Three workplace actions for introverts to strengthen their advantages
Social Posts
- 2018-09-02: “Don’t turn your passion into a career; you’ll ruin it.”