Originally Posted by abaya

That's not what I meant, QuasiMondo. What I meant was that one can have recognition without using one's career as a means of achieving that. For me personally, a career pays the bills... sure, would be nice to have a semi-enjoyable career, but the point of my life is to get off work and relax, go hiking, practice my photography, help people out, go on vacation, do nothing, sleep. I find no solace or identity in work, nor do I ever want or hope to achieve fame through it. It's something I have to do, but definitely not something I particularly want to do.

Now, for explanation's sake (because these things will probably never happen! lol, but I can try), let's say that while I'm developing my photography hobby, I get recognition for my portfolio of pictures. Or let's say I'm doing volunteer work and get an award or something, for contributing X number of hours, or making a real difference in the community. Maybe I climb X number of mountains on X continent and there's a newspaper article about that, etc.

I'm just citing examples of "fame" without anything related to work/career. If anything, that's the kind of "fame" I'm interested in... something resulting from what I'm doing in my free time, not getting paid to do (in fact, probably having to pay to *do* it). These are really basic examples, but you get the idea. The less I work (beyond a minimum level of income, to allow me to do these things on the side), the more I can do cool stuff like that... not for the fame (though fine if it happens), but because I love to do it, and that's the sole reason for doing anything in life... other than work.

A few folks are lucky enough to love what they do for a living... I hope I can join them, someday, but I'm not holding my breath. I learned a long time ago that I'm not easily satisfied by anything, and I get bored quickly. I'll be one of those 7-10 career changes in my life people, which is fine for me. My achievement lies elsewhere.