I do not consider myself a “career-oriented” person.

I don’t have a ten-year plan, or even a five-year plan mapped out. That has caused me to come into contact with a lot of criticism, and, frankly, a lot of self-doubt. Oftentimes I feel behind because I need to know what my goals are, and exactly how I can get to them, to be successful in my future life.

I have been thinking a lot about what that word means - successful. When you hear it, you probably think of a high-powered lawyer, a talented doctor, a professional baseball player, a prolific musician, etc. And what do all of these careers seem to have in common? On the surface, it is hard work and guts, but when you really look at each of them, it is the product.

It is a hard and true fact that certain careers pay more than others in the United States, and a dismaying fact that the distribution of salary is extremely skewed. I often ask myself when I am sitting watching the game with my dad - why is it that these men who play a sport they love for a living get paid millions, when teachers or civil service workers don’t? What kind of logic is involved in that?

An attitude that prioritizes productivity has trickled down into our culture from our free-market economy that contributes to this bizarre logic. Let’s stick with the baseball player/teacher comparison for a moment. A baseball player brings in the dough to seat thousands in a massive baseball stadium, creating a turnover of profit the very night of his game. A teacher, however, doesn't turn a “profit” for the "consumer" until graduation, and maybe not even until after that. And that profit is not necessarily monetary.

A teacher may teach one student for six years, and watch him or her graduate. The teacher’s hard work to improve that student’s interpersonal skills does not manifest in a physical or immediate way. The product is longitudinal - that is, the product has a long-lasting effect, rather than meeting an immediate need.

What I am getting at is that, in America, we seem to pay our employees based on productivity in an immediate, and often monetary, sense. Those who produce a profit efficiently, and more importantly, who produce a profit that can be seen tangibly, are paid more, and those who do not necessarily produce in a physical and immediate sense, are paid less.

The situation is, I will admit, more nuanced than this. Doctors, for instance, make a real difference in people’s lives despite money. However, if you think back, doctors were not considered so successful a hundred years or so ago. Not until doctors fueled the health care system did they become so highly paid and respected in macro society.

So what does “successful” or “career-oriented” really mean? I would suggest to you that these words have taken on a connotation derived from our free-market society. Success is associated with productivity in a tangible and immediate sense, based on a demand and a supply for that demand. Therefore, it seems that more Americans are drawn toward those kinds of careers, or at least that those careers are more lauded in our society. But, unfortunately, this causes some important careers to lie in shadow.

I ask you - what does “successful” mean for you?