In my last post, I made a short argument for why it’s helpful to do things that you love. In this post, I want to examine why you should also be searching to do things that other people hate.
Let’s start by thinking about some fun jobs. Many people want to be teachers, artists, or celebrities. Resultingly, these fields have either infinitesimal odds of making it, or simply pay poorly for those who succeed. This is because of supply and demand. If there’s a large supply of people wanting to do something, the institutions demanding it can pay a lower price for output than would be the case if less people wanted to do something.
In this sense, it explains why un-sexy jobs pay well. A classic example of this is that plumbers make bank. Generally, if the jobs need to get done, and the price signal is visible (you can see average salary for instance), the upward pressure on labor’s cost encourages more people to enter the market.
Fundamentally, investment is seeking alpha, or excess return relative to the benchmark index. Chasing the same things everyone else is looking at has little alpha because people are all aiming at the same goal. By contrast, finding something that’s under-priced relative to its ability to grow is more likely to make you money.
When thinking about your career and investment, you should consider what can you do that no one else can.
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