Do what you love ?

I was reading this dudes wreaka's blog which is really cool, and while he is a young lad, he mentioned something in line with what I've thought about.. he feels the need to do something he is good at and make money, rather than do something he loves and be mediocre.

A young man can feel that way and get away with it. When you hit 35 you may wonder if you cheated yourself in life having gone that route rather than following some passion.

But the idea merits consideration, for I have considered it many times in my past. I can't say I love what I'm doing, but I enjoy working in capital markets, I just wish I was better at it! I started a bit late, and I lack the passion to play catch up. Also the fact that I work in fixed income doesn't help because FI is a fricking complicated as hell biatch world. I listened to some treasuries trader rant the other day about how he got smashed 200k with blah blah blah and i barely could understand what he's saying. Dude, I don't work in treasuries but close enough, its sad I can't decipher it better.

Equities would be so much easier. Its just short, long, calls, puts. Theres really no analytics. The only complexity is volatility and options pricing but thats old news as well thanks to BlackScholes. Not as much exotic deals and structuring (yet) in Eq.

So anyways what would I be great at? I think I have always had the potential to be a great solutions architect, like a key pre-sales tech guy helping with packaged software implementations, integrations, etc. There was a guy a Bagiba who did the job and I look at what he was doing and figure yeah, that would be me. I think I can talk the talk and do the walk -- a few presentations, talk shop w/ techies, schmooze w/ managers, and help close deals. Variety and challenge.

But alas, I am not ready to give up on my current dream of becoming a market guru. I have been in enough jobs to know that its always seems better on the other side.

My bonus this year was a pre-negotiated 37.5% of my base and it was deposited today. Yep, more money. I think I'll go to a nice dinner restaurant w/ my date tomorrow night, just not sure where to go.