Every era has its own unique backdrop and social atmosphere. Often, individuals feel powerless to change the situation, thinking that no matter what they do, it won’t make a difference—so they decide to do nothing at all.
However, this also presents an opportunity to try something from a different perspective. For example, a few days ago, I went to Yongkang, Tainan, for some business. On my way back, I took a bus driven by a young woman. She looked so young that I doubted if she was even of legal age.
But what’s important here is that, in a time when many young people in Taiwan are choosing to “lie flat” and give up, this young woman’s actions are something we can all learn from.
In Taiwan’s current social and economic climate, industries like semiconductors, real estate, and fraud seem to dominate, while other sectors are becoming sunset industries or stagnant pools of inactivity.
These industries lack sufficient profit and struggle to upgrade, with too little capital to invest in new attempts. Naturally, this makes it hard to attract top talent, and it’s even more difficult for employees to receive fair compensation.
As a result, there is no atmosphere for innovation or creation in society. Many young people, unable to catch the wave in these few booming sectors, choose to do nothing. They feel that whatever effort they put in would yield no return or sense of accomplishment, so they simply “lie flat.”
However, it’s precisely during these transitional and scattered periods that there are more opportunities to try new things. With fewer people working in certain industries, the chances to experiment actually increase.
Take the young female bus driver, for instance. If the market were stable and saturated, we could reasonably assume that her opportunity to try bus driving would be much lower than it is now.
But since the barrier to entry has lowered, there are more opportunities to try different jobs—something that wasn’t always possible in the past.
When you can experience a variety of formal jobs and gain more workplace exposure, it can greatly benefit your future career.
It’s not just about money or wages. The point is that today, if you can easily try out a complete job and have plenty of opportunities to switch careers, this is a rare era indeed.
These experiences not only provide you with diverse job exposure but also help you truly discover what you want to do. You’ll learn how to organize tasks, understand the importance of work processes, and even figure out how to work—whether in multitasking mode or focusing on a single task.
Perhaps modern people, through just a few years and a few full-time job experiences, can find what they want to do and also earn better compensation. But I think the greatest benefit is that you’ll learn how to balance work, pleasure, and family life.
Maybe this is no longer an era where you have to spend decades deeply committed to one job to find your sense of belonging. However, if you can experience several jobs and determine which ones you enjoy and find fulfillment in, along with appropriate rewards, this is certainly the best possible scenario.
And right now, we are in such an era.
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