Jobs you'd have loved if you were smart enough

[Rico1304]

17 minutes ago, ZonkoVille77 said:

I just wished I wasn't so lazy. I could have been anything I wanted to be if it wasn't for laziness. 

I love hard work, I could watch it all day. 

[littletedwest]

2 hours ago, YorkshireRed said:

My Dad was a Doctor. Never wanted to follow in his footsteps until it was too late. Not sure I ever had what it takes, brains or otherwise, but I think now I’d like to have tried. 

Dr Shipman was from Yorkshire wasn't he?

[YorkshireRed]

4 minutes ago, littletedwest said:

Dr Shipman was from Yorkshire wasn't he?

Born in Nottingham but hung himself in Wakefield Prison.

 

He was at Leeds Medical School at the same time as my Dad but not the same year. I don’t think their paths crossed. 

[Section_31]

3 hours ago, ZonkoVille77 said:

I just wished I wasn't so lazy. I could have been anything I wanted to be if it wasn't for laziness. 

I think hard work helps in certain careers, but not all. 

 

Grafting allied with brains would probably get you into a top role in, say, engineering or medicine, but a lot of jobs have hidden challenges.

 

Being a senior copper for instance probably involves a huge degree of politics and not pissing the wrong people off.

 

The arts I'd say are probably 70 or 80% connections, maybe more, that's why posh blaggards own it. You could be the most hard working young actor around but you need help to find the right auditions and someone to bankroll you while you attend them and try and pay the bills with a job at Costa. Ordinary folk can only keep that up for so long, posh twat can and do keep it going as long as they need to.

 

Then there's stuff like banking and law which also need someone to give a shit and get you the right internship or training contract.

 

I'd actually say 'hard work equals success' is one of the biggest fallacies around. 

[tokyojoe]

Grave digger or astronaut.

[A Red]

If I had been smart enough to know what I know now about raising money, i'd have made a load as a property developer.

[Geoff Woade]

35 minutes ago, Colonel Kurtz said:

I don’t think either him or Fred West hung themselves, I think the prison officers decided on their own punishment. 

I genuinely don’t believe this happens. Someone would blab. You’re not stringing up a Shipman or West without boasting about it to someone. 

[Chip Butty]

Gynecologist, if not that, a lingerie designer. Something that is inspiring like those two. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[cochyn]

I'm not at all money-minded. Never really having much money and never being educated in it in any way always made me fear it in my early adulthood. So I'd love to have had the brass balls and the shrewd know-how to prove the old adage that 'money begats money'. First, convincing a financial institution to back my plan and then orchestrating it perfectly without even flinching when shit looks dicey. Both steps would need an iron will in dealing with hard-nosed money-types and an ability to work with borderline high-functioning psychopaths. All the while never losing sight of who I was. It'd be fucking ace just seeming to coast through the morass that is the world of finance for no other reason than I'd figured out how to. 

[VladimirIlyich]

5 minutes ago, cochyn said:

I'm not at all money-minded. Never really having much money and never being educated in it in any way always made me fear it in my early adulthood. So I'd love to have had the brass balls and the shrewd know-how to prove the old adage that 'money begats money'. First, convincing a financial institution to back my plan and then orchestrating it perfectly without even flinching when shit looks dicey. Both steps would need an iron will in dealing with hard-nosed money-types and an ability to work with borderline high-functioning psychopaths. All the while never losing sight of who I was. It'd be fucking ace just seeming to coast through the morass that is the world of finance for no other reason than I'd figured out how to. 

You Sir,are over qualified in the art of becoming Chancellor of the Exchequer.

[Remmie]

14 hours ago, Bobby Hundreds said:

Not so much smarts but I'd love to of done special effects and prop making for films and TV. Not so much CGI though I'd love to do that too but practical effects. 

A travel buddy of mine's dad works for industrial light and magic and did this in big movies. He has played Indiana Jones' hands and even though you only see his/Indies hands, he still needed to dress as him head to toe. 

14 hours ago, Bruce Spanner said:

Wanted to be a diplomat, took some bad, and incorrect, advice from one of my lecturers and fucked it up.

 

I could have been part the consulate to Azerbaijan by now if I hadn’t of listened to that Greek dickhead! 

A mate of mine worked at the Azerbaijan consulate for 3.5 years, he's now in Mongolia. We have been looking after his cat while he's been abroad. You would have almost certainly worked with him and talked about knowing me. Your loss. 

14 hours ago, Fluter in Dakota said:

 

Dr Dre killed two birds with one stone.

More like get 2 birds stoned at once

[Total Longo]

Pimp.

[Rick Sanchez C-137]

My limiting factor is laziness more than anything. I'm a massive procrastinator. When I actually get going with things I usually do OK.

[Champ]

15 hours ago, Rico1304 said:

Tough love.  I don’t think ‘Pull yourself together’ is in the manual.  Although apparently lots of the calls they get are from perverts making shit up and wanking over the sympathy 

We’ve had that at work, asking to speak to a woman and wanting to speak about ‘personal issues’

[Rick Sanchez C-137]

52 minutes ago, Colonel Kurtz said:

 

I know a few multi millionaires through my job (in the city) and one thing that defines them all is relentless obsession about work. The richest guy I know works 7 days a week, no family and no other interests. He could have retired years ago but still works 14 hour days whereas most of us would be on the beach. 

 

 

 

 

This makes sense if his work is a work of passion. If its some wallstreet shite then I can't imagine a bigger waste of life that staying in the rat race longer than necessary to secure your financial future.

[cloggypop]

57 minutes ago, Colonel Kurtz said:

There is a good book by Malcolm Gladwell about this, how luck and circumstance play a huge part. Bill Gates for example had access to a very early version of a computer because of his dad's job so he could learn coding in his teens when none of his peers could. 

I know a few multi millionaires through my job (in the city) and one thing that defines them all is relentless obsession about work. The richest guy I know works 7 days a week, no family and no other interests. He could have retired years ago but still works 14 hour days whereas most of us would be on the beach. 

 

 

 

And on the other hand, Boris Johnson is PM and Trump is President. 

[A Red]

Whilst I agree luck is the most important factor towards being successful - right place right time, background, talent etc. If you havent got those things then hard work and planning are usually central.

[Bjornebye]

13 minutes ago, Aw Geez said:

 

This makes sense if his work is a work of passion. If its some wallstreet shite then I can't imagine a bigger waste of life that staying in the rat race longer than necessary to secure your financial future.

I've often wondered why after you've secured a very comfortable life why would you carry on? Like those who design an app and sell it for say 40 million or whatever then carry on doing other stuff? I wouldn't lift a finger to do work again! Maybe thats why their multi-millionaires and I'm going toe to toe with my overdraft. 

[VladimirIlyich]

11 minutes ago, A Red said:

Whilst I agree luck is the most important factor towards being successful - right place right time, background, talent etc. If you havent got those things then hard work and planning are usually central.

Hard work is only relevant if you have the luck/connections to begin with.

[Rico1304]

I know someone who’s made several million pounds recently, he’s still working and has no plans to quit. He’s very driven, and loves what he does. He’s quite intense in that when he does something he goes at it 100%.  So he got into cycling, bought all the gear, got very good at it and cycled Lands End to John oGroats, then never cycled again.  He did the same with a martial art (can’t remember which one), got the top belt then stopped.  He’s very alpha and just has to be doing something. 

[A Red]

11 minutes ago, VladimirIlyich said:

Hard work is only relevant if you have the luck/connections to begin with.

By saying that you are creating an excuse for not succeeding. Of course you need elements of luck, health, mental stability, some intelligence where you live and a whole load of things. Beyond that hard work and attitude is usually central.

[VladimirIlyich]

23 minutes ago, A Red said:

By saying that you are creating an excuse for not succeeding. Of course you need elements of luck, health, mental stability, some intelligence where you live and a whole load of things. Beyond that hard work and attitude is usually central.

Silly me! If only I'd have worked harder,me and the 50 million other Britons who live from payslip to payslip every month.

[Rico1304]

3 minutes ago, VladimirIlyich said:

Silly me! If only I'd have worked harder,me and the 50 million other Britons who live from payslip to payslip every month.

Maybe you aren’t as smart as you think you are. I’ve worked with literally hundreds of people over the years who’ve started out digging holes in roads or fitting meters and ended up in senior management earning 6 figures (and more) salaries.  

[cloggypop]

5 minutes ago, VladimirIlyich said:

Silly me! If only I'd have worked harder,me and the 50 million other Britons who live from payslip to payslip every month.

Simply pull yourself up by your bootstraps. 

[Section_31]

2 hours ago, Colonel Kurtz said:

There is a good book by Malcolm Gladwell about this, how luck and circumstance play a huge part. Bill Gates for example had access to a very early version of a computer because of his dad's job so he could learn coding in his teens when none of his peers could. 

I know a few multi millionaires through my job (in the city) and one thing that defines them all is relentless obsession about work. The richest guy I know works 7 days a week, no family and no other interests. He could have retired years ago but still works 14 hour days whereas most of us would be on the beach. 

 

 

 

 

Yeah I think it depends on the industry. I'm sure its possibly to rise to the top in banking purely through brains and hard graft, but I imagine things like internships and introductions to the right people plays a role too when it comes to navigating the rapids to get where you want to go. 

 

Hats off to anyone who achieves, even people who've been given a hand up (I'd take a hand and give one if I had the opportunity) but by doing so, you can't buy into the bullshit that those who don't have anything deserve their lot because they didn't try hard enough. 

 

Seems to be a thing with the modern middle class too that, I find. People can be quite hard nosed about stuff because they've  got a semi-decent job "I feed my kids why can't you, I've got a pension why haven't you, I've got a house why don't you". A lot of these people though are insulated from the very worst pressures of life and don't realise it, or fear that if they admit it they're somehow diminished in their bragging rights. 

 

Things like, for instance, I know people who've gone for months or even years without working because they've been holding out for something which befits their education. Their parents have bankrolled them while they did so, but others have had to abandon dreams early on to pay the bills. Even things like being able to go to a safe school - it doesn't have to be Eaton - but somewhere where you can spend more time  thinking about your homework than how to avoid getting your head kicked in on the way home.