Ah! Do you smell that? Well, if you are anywhere near ThinkTalk headquarters, that smell would be the pollen in the air. It’s cues like this- the smell of pollen- that remind me of the season and the time of year. You see, something interesting happens when you graduate from college. Your life no longer is measured in a time spurt stretching from Winter break to Spring break. Rather, at least for me, it is measured in work deadlines and important life milestones.

I only mention this to warn you if you are one of the new graduates entering the workforce this summer. Actually, you should be fine for the summer. You’ll notice it more when Christmas comes and you are no longer able to have a three to four week jubilee, but let’s talk about that seven and half months from now. I regress . . .

With graduation just around the corner for some of you I decided to introduce a short video on the blog today featuring some inspirational graduation advice. It comes from author and motivational speaker Suzy Welch. Welch has been featured as a guest on a number of notable media outlets to discuss business and career advice. She also writes a weekly column on the subject.

In this particular video Welch keeps it real by NOT sugarcoating the fact the present economy presents some challenges in finding a job. However, she also keeps it real regarding the balance between finding the career you want and living a happy (not phony) life. In short, you may not be where you want to be now, but better to pursue your real passions wholeheartedly while risking rejection and failure then jump into a position in which you will find yourself unrecognizable in ten years. The title of this blog will make more sense once you view the video.

I found this important because I value happiness in a profound way. I’ve been looking to buy stock in happiness, because I really feel like it’s on the up and up, but haven’t been able to find a broker that can help me with that.

During a recent conversation with our guest blogger, Jane Lovas, we discussed happiness as it relates to careers. When Jane asked me what I wanted to do in the future, I stumbled slightly and gave her the answer I give everyone when they ask: “I just want to be happy. No matter what form that takes or what path I travel to get there, in the end, happiness is the goal.” I went on to mention that for me happiness is equated with a feeling of connectedness to the people I work with and feeling that my work is directly benefiting someone else (you’re benefiting from this right?). Jane said something that I found profound. She said, “Happiness is everyone’s goal. People just have different ways of getting there. So the person that wants to be an astronaut, or an engineer, or a business owner, really just wants the feeling that they associate with becoming that. In the end, they hope that that feeling is happiness.”

What do you want to be? Who do you want to be? Where do you want to be?

I hope that the answer makes you authentically happy.