Dream Jobs

It doesn’t matter how happy - or complacent - you are in your current job, because everyone dreams about some other job they could have. Maybe it’s the plight of being a New Yorker, where there’s always a better-looking person you could be dating, a better glass of wine you could have ordered, and some more exciting way to celebrate New Year’s Eve (which bites you in the ass when you wait for that better offer that never comes).

I watch a lot of TV at night before going to bed, and inevitably I happen across "The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch," starring the ad agency mogul and a lineup of inventors, celebrities, and entrepreneurs that have made millions by following their dreams (including, in fact, the heads of my company). But the problem everybody has is figuring out what they really want to do.

For me personally, I don’t think any of my dream jobs would make me a millionaire. Working at a record label, at one point, was my dream job - and the music industry is notoriously low-paying (except, clearly, for the heads of my company). And now as I fantasize about what else there is out there for me to do, I have the sinking feeling it’s going to be a long time before I can afford to buy an apartment.

My dream jobs, in no particular order:

• soap opera star
  
• sitcom actor
  
• flavor innovator (there’s a lot more they could be doing with peanut butter)
  
• subway ad scraper
  
• newspaper/magazine columnist
  
• entertainment reporter
  
• VJ (except they don’t really exist anymore)
  
• intrepid travel diarist
  
• bar owner
  
• trial attorney

I’ve actually always kind of hoped that I would have several careers throughout my life, remembering a conductor who died when I worked at Atlantic who, in addition to his classical career, was also an attorney and a medical doctor. I figure I can become a novelist or something when I’m old and ugly, and only a thumbnail headshot of me is required for the back cover.

But in the meantime while I’m young and still relatively attractive, what’s next for me?

I look forward to finding out.