A 19-year-old mentee of mine once told me he wanted to sell clothes online through drop shipping. When I asked why, his answer came quickly: money, and fast money at that. He had seen enough success stories on social media to know exactly what he wanted. The problem was that he had no idea why he wanted it.
He is not unusual. Young people are watching industries shift while hearing constant warnings about which jobs may disappear, which skills will become obsolete, and which careers will remain safe. Many respond by chasing speed over substance, income over identity, and whatever opportunity appears most profitable. It is an understandable response to uncertainty. Economics matters. But when career conversations remain confined to salary, efficiency, and job security, they miss something essential: work does not only provide for us. It also forms us, connects us to others, and gives us a way to contribute.
I did not challenge his ambition. I took it further. I asked him to imagine that he succeeded — genuinely wealthy and retired by 40. Then what? If he lived to 80 or 90, what would fill the remaining four or five decades? He laughed, and then he went quiet. It seemed no one had asked him that before.
When he finally answered, he did not talk about early retirement or relaxing on a beach. He talked about his parents and his desire to retire them early. He talked about becoming a pillar in his community. Money, it turned out, was not the final goal. It was a mechanism. That distinction did not remove his entrepreneurial drive; but it gave the drive a purpose. He has since moved toward real estate, drawn by the genuine desire of helping families find homes.
Work is More Than a Paycheck
This is one of many conversations I have each week with high school and college students. Deep down, most people want to contribute beyond the established norms. They want to feel useful. They want to help others. Yet the busyness of everyday life can reduce work to paying bills and maintaining a lifestyle, while young people are left wondering which profession will pay the most. What if career development made room for a deeper question? What if we helped people see work not only as a way to earn, but also as a way to contribute to the well-being of others through the products, systems, services, and environments they help create?
Seeing the Whole Person
What often gets missed in traditional career guidance is the person’s story. Labor-market information, salary data, aptitude, personality, and available training programs are crucial, but they are not the whole system. When we focus only on data, we see the exterior without fully understanding the person carrying it. Young people also need help seeing their past, present, and future as part of one coherent timeline. Even painful experiences can become sources of perspective, empathy, and direction when properly understood.
The answer is not endless introspection that searches only for wounds. Neither is it an exclusive focus on external achievement, validation, or the next credential. We need a balanced approach that connects inner understanding with outward contribution. I like to see this movement through a 3-D approach: Discovery, Development, and Deployment.
Discovery: Understanding the Person Before the Profession
Discovery begins before we name a profession. It begins with questions: What do people consistently tell you that you are good at? What kinds of problems in the world weigh on you? When have you felt most alive, useful, or engaged? What experience has most transformed you? What kind of environment brings out your best? These questions help us identify patterns across a person’s story. The goal is not to force someone prematurely into a category, but to help them recognize the intersection between their abilities, experiences, motivations, and the needs they feel drawn to address.
Development: Building Capacity Through Apprenticeship
Development turns that emerging clarity into capacity. This requires more than recommending a course or sending someone a list of resources. It requires apprenticeship. Young people need proximity to people who are already doing meaningful work and are willing to guide them through it. Real apprenticeship cannot be reduced to a presentation once a week or a conversation once a month. Mentors must make room in their schedules, offer hands-on experience, give honest feedback, and remain present as a young person grows. Those in positions of influence may need to become deliberately less busy so someone else can learn alongside them.
Deployment: Turning Potential into Contribution
Deployment gives the young person somewhere real to contribute. It may involve an internship, a project, a first job, a volunteer responsibility, further education, or an entrepreneurial experiment. The first opportunity does not need to be permanent or perfect. It needs to be concrete enough for the person to practice, receive feedback, discover limitations, and take the next step. Clarity becomes direction when someone is invited to contribute, fail, adjust, and try again.
The Workforce Professional’s Most Important Question
For workforce professionals, the practical starting point is simple: do not pass by too quickly. Look a young person in the eyes and say, “Tell me your story.” You may be surprised by the reaction. There are gifts, burdens, experiences, and treasures waiting to be unwrapped, but young people cannot uncover all of them through introspection alone. We need other people to help us see what we carry. Before asking someone to choose a job title, take time to understand the life behind the decision. Career guidance may begin with information, but true vocation begins and continues when a person feels seen — and when that person is invited to be formed over time within a healthy community, alongside mentors who choose to invest in the next generation.
