Opportunity Cost
A big part of the reason that I cut short my stay in Australia was to return here, finish school as soon as possible, and begin to pursue some professional opportunities that were going to have to wait for my return to California. After being back since the morning of Superbowl Sunday, I’ve figured out the school thing; I’ll be able to graduate in June after one more quarter of school, with a degree in Ecology and a degree in Design with an emphasis in sustainable design. I’m very excited to be finishing up, and to have both degrees guiding me toward a sustainable future.As for the professional opportunities, to say they’ve been knocking at my door would be an understatement… breaking down the door with a battering ram seems like a more accurate analogy. In this past 3 days I’ve been offered 3 jobs with 3 different companies (two startups and one established), and have been developing plans for 2 of my own corporations, one non-profit and one for profit. When I left Australia I felt like it was a very significant example of the idea that we are defined by in life as much by what we choose not to do as what we choose to pursue. This goes hand-in-hand with my recent realization that I’m at a point in my life where everything has an opportunity cost (to use an economist’s jargon). That is to say that I am interested in so many things that I can’t possibly do all of them, and picking one means that I’m leaving something else unexplored. I’m not sure when I became interested in enough things that there simply aren’t time for them all – I don’t remember feeling like everything had an opportunity cost when I was a freshman in college, but sometime in the last two years I became interested and passionate about enough things that I just can’t do them all.My current job opportunities are a perfect example – all of them are good options and have benefits, both financial and educational, but I’m finding it hard to figure out which one is the best option. I’ll talk to some friends and people more experienced than I in a quest to find out what the right questions to ask are, but I think it’ll come down to gut feeling – the same gut feeling that brought me back to California 11 months early, and that seems to be working out just fine so far…So I pose this question to anyone that might be reading: Does everything your life feel like it has an opportunity cost? How do you choose which doors to open – and, equally important – which doors to close?
February 22nd, 2007 at 3:04 pm
“So I pose this question to anyone that might be reading: Does everything in your life feel like it has an opportunity cost? How do you choose which doors to open – and, equally important – which doors to close?”
Alan,
It seems to me a great deal depends on what doors I am aware of at any given moment. Theoretically, there are hundreds of doors opening and closing in front of me all the time. But perception has a great deal to do with focus. Studies in the field of perception have shown we see what we are looking for, and we miss a great deal of the rest. This is a round about way of saying, cultivating the ability stay with the unknown, might be just what I need to see clearly where I am, what opportunities lay before me, and in which direction I am most drawn.
There’s another aspect I’d like to throw into the mix. Some doors will never open, no matter how hard I push. Some doors open with a single breath. The ease with which I move through life, and the concomitant sustainability of my own energies, will depend in large part on my ability to discern the difference.
I think the single most important factor to be aware of, no matter what the opportunity cost is this; what do I want?