Growing up, I was encouraged to get a good education, get a real job doing something I enjoyed, and, should the opportunity present itself, consider public service as just that: a chance to serve, not an end in itself.
The first duty of a human being is to assume the right functional relationship to society - more briefly, to find your real job, and do it.
That first company I started made a lot of money for the venture capitalists - nearly $30 million - but next to nothing for the founders. The companies I started after that varied between failures and mediocre successes. But at no point did I ever consider getting a 'real job.' That felt like a black and white world, and I wanted Technicolor.
When I got out of college, I gave myself till I was 30 to invent a product. If I couldn't do it by then, I would just get a real job. And that fear - the fear of a real job - motivated me to be an entrepreneur.
My aunt could never understand how writing could be a full-time job. She'd keep asking when I'd get a real job!
If I were a serious person, I'd probably have a real job.
I am so excited to extend myself behind the scenes as a designer and to - as my father puts it - finally have a real job.
One of my first memories of being a kid was, 'I want to have a real job when I grow up.' And to me that meant you wear a suit and a hat and carry a briefcase and go to your job.
I have had a 'real' job for only four years of my life, which means I only collected a traditional paycheck for that very short period of time.
I guess there's a sort of cycle with writing books. There's all the researching and then the imagining and writing - which is the real job - and then there's always a period when the book comes out and you have to lift your head and venture out.