How can you reduce the gamble in selecting a vocation？Read on；we will tell you as best we can.
First，try，if possible，to find work that you enjoy.I once asked David M.Goodrich，Chairman of the Board，B.F.Goodrich Company-tyre manufacturers—what he considered the first requisite of success in business，and he replied：“Having a goodtime at your work.If you enjoy what you are doing，”he said，“you may work long hours，but it won’t seem like work at all.It will seem like play.”
Edison was a good example of that.Edison—the unschooled newsboy who grew up to transform the industrial life of America—Edison，the man who often ate and slept in his laboratory and toiled there for eighteen hours a day.But it wasn’t toil to him.“I never did a day’s work in my life，”he exclaimed.“It was all fun.”No wonder he succeeded！
I once heard Charles Schwab say much the same thing.He said：“A man can succeed at almost anything for which he has unlimited enthusiasm.”
But how can you have enthusiasm for a job when you haven’t the foggiest idea of what you want to do？“The greatest tragedy I know of，”said Mrs.Edna Kerr，who once hired thousands of employees for the Dupont Company，and is now assistant director of industrial relations for the American Home Products Company—“The greatest tragedy I know of，”she told me，“is that so many young people never discover what they really want to do.I think no one else is so much to be pitied as the person who gets nothing at all out of his work but his pay.”Mrs.Kerr reports that even college graduates come to her and say：“I have a B.A.degree from Dartmouth [or an M.A.from Cornell].Have you some kind of work I can do for your firm？”They don’t know themselves what they are able to do，or even what they would like to do.Is it any wonder that so many men and women who start out in life with competent minds and rosy dreams end up at forty in utter frustration and even with a nervous breakdown？In fact，finding the right occupation is important even for your health.When Dr.Raymond Pearl，of Johns Hopkins，made a study，together with some insurance companies，to discover the factors that make fora long life，he placed “the right occupation”high on the list.He might have said，with Thomas Carlyle：“Blessed is the man who has found his work.Let him ask no other blessedness.”
I recently spent an evening with Paul W.Boynton，employment supervisor for the Socony-Vacuum Oil Company.During the last twenty years he has interviewed more than seventy-five thousand people looking for jobs，and he has written a book entitled 6Ways to Get a Job.I asked him：“What is the greatest mistake young people make today in looking for work？”“They don’t know what they want to do，”he said.“It is perfectly appalling to realise that a man will give more thought to buying a suit of clothes that will wear out in a few years than he will give to choosing the career on which his whole future depends-on which his whole future happiness and peace of mind are based！”
And so what？What can you do about it？You can take advantage of a new profession called vocational guidance.It may help you—or harm you—depending on the ability and character of the counselor you consult.This new profession isn’t even within gunshot of perfection yet.It hasn’t even reached the Model T stage.But it has a great future.How can you make use of this science？By finding out where，in your community，you can get vocational tests and vocational advice.
Such advice can only take the form of suggestions.You have to make the decisions.Remember that these counselors are far from infallible.They don’t always agree with one another.They sometimes make ridiculous mistakes.For example，a vocational-guidance counselor advised one of my students to become a writer solely because she had a large vocabulary.How absurd！It isn’t as simple as that.Good writing is the kind that transfers your thoughts and emotions to the reader—and to do that，you don’t need a large vocabulary，but you do need ideas，experience，convictions，examples and excitement.The vocational counselor who advised this girl with a large vocabulary to become an author succeeded in doing only one thing：he turned an erstwhile happy stenographer into a frustrated，would-be novelist.
The point I am trying to make is that vocational-guidance experts，even as you and I，are not infallible.Perhaps you had better consult several of them-and then interpret their findings in the sunlight of common sense.
You may think it strange that I am including a chapter like this in a book devoted to worry.But it isn’t strange at all，when you understand how many of our worries，regrets，and frustrations are spawned by work we despise.Ask your father about it—or your neighbour or your boss.No less an intellectual giant than John Stuart Mill declared that industrial misfits are “among the heaviest losses of society”.Yes，and among the unhappiest people on this earth are those same “industrial misfits”who hate their daily work！
Do you know the kind of man who “cracked up”in the Army？The man who was misplaced！I’m not talking about battle casualties，but about the men who cracked up in ordinary service.Dr.William Menninger，one of our greatest living psychiatrists，was in charge of the Army’s neuro-psychiatric division during the war，and he says：“We learned much in the Army as to the importance of selection and of placement，of putting the right man in the right job....A conviction of the importance of the job at hand was extremely important.Where a man had no interest，where he felt he was misplaced，where he thought he was not appreciated，where he believed his talents were being misused，invariably we found a potential if not an actual psychiatric casualty.”
Yes—and for the same reasons，a man may “crack up”in industry.If he despises his business，he can crack it up，too.