For the first 6 years of my career, I made less than $20,000\/year. For 18 months, I made more, but then I made less for another year after that, so it averaged out. It was a tough time (and I’ve written about it before so won’t rehash here), but I never stopped learning, stopped growing, or had to feeling like I was on a treadmill going nowhere. It always FELT like a notch of progress was just around the corner (and eventually, it was).<\/p>\n
Many folks ask me “what kept you going all those years?” Undoubtedly, there were a number of factors, but I strongly believe that the sense that progress was being made, even when the rewards of that progress were so intangible and non-financial, was a heavy contributor.\u00a0Dan Ariely, who wrote Predictably Irrational<\/a> and The Upside of Irrationality<\/a> – both of which I enjoyed, did a TEDx talk last year that was just posted this week on the topic of work and meaning:<\/p>\n