Many people say the difference between the US and many other parts of the world is that here in the US we “live to work” as opposed to “work to live”. As we make career decisions, it is smart to work backwards by thinking about the lifestyle that we want to live and the type of career path that can get us there.

Entrepreneurship is often described as the ultimate lifestyle/career choice — you can work your own hours, be your own boss, and you live the fruits of your labor. But it is also a great deal of work before you get to that euphoric image of the entrepreneur running his business from a private island — your company becomes a part of your life 24/7, a lot barriers must be broken down and mountains to be moved, you rarely have the full-resources to put behind your idea to execute efficiently, and even if you are bringing in millions of dollars you will be pinching pennies.

Sometimes the 9-5 job can give you your ideal lifestyle: you have structure, security, can afford nice dinners and buy rounds of drinks, you can get the resources you need to advance a project or idea, be paid to travel the world, and continually have short-term victories as opposed to continually chasing a long-term outcome.

Neither career path is right or wrong…better or worse. Each provides a different lifestyle, and as we make our career choices in life we must take into consideration whether that decision will get us closer to the lifestyle that we want to live.

Do you “live to work”? Or do you “work to live”?