For many of us, our fathers served as our introduction to the working world. Through dinner table conversations, social events and occasional visits to his work site, we’d form ideas of what work life was like.
For better or worse, these ideas often shaped what we eventually chose as our own career path, whether it was along the same lines, or in a very different direction.
Maybe your father was full of meaningful advice on the topic of your career choice. Or maybe his wisdom was imparted by letting you find your own way. At any rate, it’s likely that none of it made any sense until you actually started looking for your own first job
In honor of dads everywhere, here’s some sage career advice from famous dads to their children.
The writer F. Scott Fitzgerald in a 1933 letter to his 11-year-old daughter Scottie on not worrying about silly things:
Things to worry about:
Worry about courage?
Worry about Cleanliness?
Worry about efficiency?
Worry about horsemanship?
Worry about…
Things not to worry about:
Don’t worry about popular opinion?
Don’t worry about dolls?
Don’t worry about the past?
Don’t worry about the future?
Don’t worry about growing up?
Don’t worry about anybody getting ahead of you?
Don’t worry about triumph?
Don’t worry about failure unless it comes through your own fault
Source: F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Life in Letters
A 1928 letter from LeRoy Pollock to his son as a young man, the artist Jackson Pollock, on the secret to success:
“The secret of success is concentrating interest in life, interest in sports and good times, interest in your studies, interest in your fellow students, interest in the small things of nature, insects, birds, flowers, leaves, etc. In other words to be fully awake to everything about you & the more you learn the more you can appreciate & get a full measure of joy & happiness out of life.”
Source: American Letters 1927-1947: Jackson Pollock & Family
Albert Einstein in a 1915 letter to his son Hans Albert about learning new things:
“That is the way to learn the most, that when you are doing something with such enjoyment that you don’t notice that the time passes.”
Source: Posterity: Letters of Great Americans to Their Children
The writer Sherwood Anderson in a 1926 letter to his 17-year-old son John on the quest to find one’s purpose:
“The best thing, I dare say, is first to learn something well so you can always make a living. (Your brother) seems to be catching on at the newspaper business and has had another raise. He is getting a good training by working in a smaller city. As for the scientific fields, any of them require a long schooling and intense application. If you are made for it nothing could be better. In the long run you will have to come to your own conclusion.”
Source: Posterity: Letters of Great Americans to Their Children
Marion Carpenter in a letter to his son, astronaut Scott Carpenter on the day before his voyage to become only the second American to orbit the Earth:
“And I venture to predict that after all the huzzas have been uttered and the public acclaim is but a memory, you will derive the greatest satisfaction from the serene knowledge that you have discovered new truths. You can say to yourself: this I saw, this I experienced, this I know to be the truth.”
Source: For Spacious Skies: The Uncommon Journey of a Mercury Astronaut by Scott Carpenter
via Brain Pickings
