From “Careers” to “Callings”: When Work Becomes Your Identity

If you consciously or subconsciously derive your identity from your work, what happens when that work goes away? Moreover, how do we reconcile the advice we hear from everyone from Steve Jobs to Steve Aoki to “follow our passion” (and, in case it wasn’t clear, monetize it) with the advice to also maintain some semblance of “work/life balance” or separation between the metaphoric church and state?

Is it a bad thing to love your work, or is it something to strive for?

My guest this week is the impressive Nora Ali—host of Morning Brew’s Business Casual, Harvard grad with a degree in statistics and quantitative finance, former Goldman Sachs analyst, concert violinist, and current media venture founder (i.e., someone who knows a thing or two about being conventionally successful and identifying with your credentials).

This week’s episode will give you a lot to chew on if you find yourself sneaking off to hammer out a few more emails after dinner.

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Mentioned in the Episode

– Derek Thompson’s piece, The Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/02/religion-workism-making-americans-miserable/583441/

– Robert Frank’s piece, The Wall Street Journal: https://blogs.wsj.com/wealth/2007/03/21/the-workaholic-rich/

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