For older professionals, do you value money, or intellectual stimulation?

[fss]

You are so bad in absorbing details is amazing, and not to mention a complete in inability to spot the main point.

Your question is essentially meaningless, and you are apparently not intelligent enough to make your own decision. Instead, you ask internet strangers their opinion so you have someone to blame if their interests don't end up matching yours.

Did I leave anything out? You seem to be missing the fundamental fact that what makes others happy doesn't necessarily make you happy.

The fallacy is similar to:

1. There is a probability of .5 that a coin flip is head.

For a fair coin, this is absolutely the case. Unless this is another one of those examples in which "the numbers don't tell the entire story" or some other similarily vague and covering statement that you seem to favor.

Base on 1, it is wrong to say "the next coin flip is a head".

Nobody said this. If someone did, they would be wrong. Applied to your situation, the probability of you making $200k right out of law/med school is decidedly less than 50% (as evidenced in the graph provided by D H), so while the statement "You will not make $200k after graduation" is not valid, the statement "You probably will not make $200k after graduation" certainly is.

The graph is not sufficient to "inform".

Nor is saying "I think I can do it." Sometimes reality gets in the way of one's hopes and dreams. Evidence has been presented that the majority of new law and medical school graduates do not make your target salary right out of law or medical school. This isn't really a groundbreaking way to present relevant information...

Being in a physics, math forum, you sure have difficulty understanding basic probability.

And yet you're the one that expects to make $200k by 30 when you haven't even passed law or medical school, much less the bar or residency. What was that about probability?

 

[renz]

I am trying to understand this thread.So I think the question is you are trying to decide between choosing a carrier path that would make a lot of money (restaurant) or one that is intellectually stimulating (philosophy/physics). And you want to ask people who has been working for a long time what they think is more important, or what is more satisfying? I think I understand the point of the question. Some people I know who choose to do what they enjoy (without big pay) sometimes say that if they can choose again they would rather make a lot of money. I can't answer this for you because I am just at the beginning stage of working. It gets complicated if you try to compromise the two and choose a middle ground I guess.
Considering lawyer/doctor as a compromise. The money is not as great as restaurant business, but it is still better than academia. It should be more intellectually stimulating, but from what I've read it's not interesting enough for you anyway. So if you are not willing to compromise both criteria then why not just toss this option out?
(although this makes me wonder about doctors who do medical research, how is the pay like? Or maybe something in medical physics)

Another compromise would be to do both but not at the same time. If you want a lot of money then do the restaurant business for few years, then go into academia.

Or of course if you want to have both at the same time (and right away?) you will have to figure out how.

 

[turbo]

If you don't understand how and why your parents became successful restaurateurs and how they make their business decisions, you will crash and burn shortly after they turn the place over to you. That is one tough field to be successful and stay successful, and it requires a lot of diligence, business-smarts, and the ability to take calculated risks to see how the changes might impact your business and keep your balance.

I don't want to rain on your parade, but there are very few people who manage to crack the $200K/year barrier before middle-age (relatively young) unless they were born on third base.