Help, I'm undervalued!

Dear Rosezilla,

My family is wealthy and prestigious. I am a member of MENSA and I have a degree is neuroscience and theology from an Ivy League school. I'm multi-lingual and have excellent hygiene.

Yet, I find myself working at a computer help desk, making barely $50,000 a year. How did I miss the gravy train to wealth town?

-Undervalued

Dear Undervalued,

If you simply want to make money, become an ibanker or consultant. Try DE Shaw, they're hiring bright young people like yourself.

I'm not a blue blood or intellectual, but I know plenty of normal folk who seem constantly blessed by life. If there's a raffle, they win. If they're laid-off, they're hired by a better company in a week.

I can only assume that you, like me, are not one of those people. So, you're going to have to put in considerable work to get a high-paying job: medical school, law school, constant rejections, crappy bosses, work that turns out to be miserable. For every 100 units of mental energy you put into your efforts to self-improve, you're lucky to get 5 back. And then you might get laid-off. Life is a series of meat grinders in an ocean of acid.

One other thing. I would guess that you don't know what you want to be when you grow up. Those lottery-winning, happy-go-lucky fools know they want to be doctors or firemen from the time they're 5, but the rest of us haven't got a clue. For us, I think the only thing to do is fake it. Pick something out of a hat, pretend its your life-long dream, and go with it.