The friend who went for a low paying job

Years ago, a very close friend of mine called me: “Amwene ndazitaya. Ndapeza pena basi (I am quitting, I have found a new job).” He told me where he was moving to and I was left mouth agape. ‘Get out of town buddy!’ I responded. ‘No I am not joking,’ he quickly chipped in.

This friend is good at what he does. I have always admired to bits his skills and professional ethics. But he had left his full-time job for one offering him far much less than what he was getting. For me, something was not right. I called his wife in disbelief, but she confirmed the same: “Ndi momwemo alamu (that’s true in-law).”

Why would somebody walk away from a job that pays well and take up another that pays less? I stood there trying to solve the puzzle. I wished it was calculus because I would have applied my mathematical knowledge. So I was all over searching for answers. I later discovered the answer to be simple. Money isn’t everything.

A long while back, I read Daniel Gilbert’s great book Stumbling on Happiness.  One little point he made, stuck in my mind. Gilbert wrote about a study in United States (US) that compared workers’ happiness with their salary levels. He found that there is a minimum income threshold on which people’s happiness gets fulfilled.

What did he find? He found that people earning less than $40 000 in a year were much less happy with their lives than people earning $40 000 exactly. What’s interesting, though, is that people earning over $40 000 were not any happier with their lives. Additional income did nothing to increase people’s happiness.

Gilbert offered a bunch of his own conclusions from that study, but my conclusion was pretty simple: any income above a certain threshold does not make you happier. I know the threshold is not $40 000 for Malawi— it’s likely much lower. Besides, the threshold varies based on location, number of dependents, and so on.

What does that “enough” income threshold represent? It represents the amount of money needed to keep a roof over your head, food on your plate, a car in your driveway (for others), and a little bit of breathing room to enjoy life. Income beyond that does nothing more than inflate our basic standard of living—a nicer house, a nicer car, a nicer vacation.

But over the long run, those “nicer” things don’t contribute at all to lasting happiness. Once we have those “nicer” things, we are right back where we started, wanting something nicer yet. Our Toyota Corolla becomes the Toyota Prado we have wanted, and then before long we want a Mercedez Benz. Our 1 000 square foot house becomes a 1 600 square foot house, and then we want a palace. Our camping vacation in Dowa becomes a weeklong holiday in Lake Malawi National Park, and then we want a holiday at Victoria Falls. Our mobile phone handset needs change too—we need the latest ones.

Once our basics are covered, more of the same does not bring us much fulfillment. Instead, fulfillment comes from the things that make you happy and bring you value in life.

But for a lot of people, whether they are acting on it or not, fulfillment comes from other sources. Perhaps it comes from being a parent. Perhaps it comes from work that they are passionate about. Maybe it comes from obtaining degrees.

Whatever that fulfillment is, it rarely comes from acquiring more of the same things you already have.

These days, whenever I see someone making the active choice to go for a lesser paying job, I usually smile. Why? Because I can relate and look at their face and know if they have found the magic for happiness or not.

Blessed weekend to you and yours as you pursue lasting happiness in whatever you do.