How the Death of Wall Street Will Help You Find Your Calling

Expanding on a point he emphasized in a recent NPR interview linked to here yesterday, Bloomberg columnist/New York Times Magazine contributor/Liar’s Poker writer/ex-bond salesman and graduate of Princeton University Michael Lewis distinguishes the differences between a job and a calling while giving a confused and disillusioned young banker some advice on life after Wall Street:

“A job will never satisfy you all by itself, but it will afford you security and the chance to pursue an exciting and fulfilling life outside of your work. A calling is an activity you find so compelling that you wind up organizing your entire self around it—often to the detriment of your life outside of it.”

Lewis adds, “There’s no shame in either. Each has costs and benefits.”

And his larger point is that Wall Street never gave people callings but “jobs that they could pass off to themselves as well as others as callings,” and that now, without big banking bonuses, perhaps tens of thousands of bright young students will spend a little more time finding a calling rather than a job.