📝 Who do you want to be when you grow up? You made a bet?

When I was a kid, one of the most annoying questions was who/what I wanted to be when I grew up.

At 14, I didn’t know. Neither did I know at 17, funnily enough.

To be frank, nobody really wants to grow up. I just wanted to have a good time, is all. Without thinking about all these complex life questions.

Not the most serious approach on my part, but that’s what it was. Guilty as charged.

Looking back, though, it’s actually one tough yet good question.

I ended up having a career I never could’ve imagined. I doubt my profession even existed back then.

How can you dream of becoming something that doesn’t exist yet? You have no frame of reference for it.

Are you a fortune teller? Most likely not. You don’t know what turn technological progress might take. (By the way, I still remember rotary phones.)

But you can make a bet.

You see, we humans have a nice feature. We can acquire skills. Well, most of us, at least, given enough effort, dedication, and time.

You can make a bet on a skill.

My bet was to learn English. And those from my generation who made a similar bet on foreign languages went far in life. Not private-jets-and-yachts far, but far enough to realize their potential and get paid handsomely along the way.

Is English my main skill? Yes and no. It taught me discipline and how to actually learn. It taught me to communicate better, to shape my ideas into clear, eloquent concepts and arguments.

With that foundation in place, I was able to learn whatever I wanted. And that, in turn, opened up a career path.

Kids today would most likely lean toward becoming streamers, influencers, or what have you.

Maybe, in their generation, that’s one of the best bets to make. Still, I wouldn’t discard foreign languages just yet.

You never know what the future might hold. Or where it might take you, for that matter.

Maybe in the future, AI will decide what futures kids get to have. Case by case basis. “Player Piano” style by Vonnegut.

Or maybe there won’t be much to choose from. Which is again “Player Piano”. There’s no escaping it, it would appear. Even more so, considering that the book was written more than 70 years ago.

Are you catching up yet?