Big fat salary, or stable job?

The following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

Question: Sir, What is more, important for a fresher, big fat salary, or a stable job?

Acharya Prashant (AP): Neither. What’s your name?

Listener (L): Acharya Ji, Taranjay.

AP: Taranjay is asking “What is more important for a fresher, a good salary or a stable job?” Neither. A good salary implies accumulation, A stable job implies fear — “What if this job goes away? What will happen to me?”

Work is life. Out of the fourteen or fifteen hours a day, when you would not be sleeping, when you would not be doing your daily tasks, you would be spending the majority of your time working. So, if I am awake, fifteen sixteen hours a day, out of that twelve hours or fourteen hours are going to be spent in work-related activities. I am going to spend seventy percent to eighty percent of my life working. Do you see this?

Work is life itself. Work is the most important, most dominant overwhelming component of your life, it will take away all your time. Work is life.

And if you do not love your work, then actually you will hate life. Because work is life. You cannot approach work using these considerations, salary, stability, these are very small, very trivial…