According to a survey found on PR Newswire, only 45 percent of workers were satisfied with their jobs. Many times people choose the wrong career, and I think it all comes down to simple reasoning. How many of you have glamorized an occupation simply because of the pay scale?

It’s cliché, but money isn’t everything – and certainly not the key to happiness. There are jobs out there that will provide you a living, but at the same time allow you a degree of happiness you never imagined.

What do you like doing? Can you find a job doing it? If not, why not make your own job? We’re in America, the land of free enterprise.

According to the Small Business Administration, small businesses are approximately half the output of the American economy, and employ about half of the private sector work force.

Our economy is fueled by small businesses; why not be one yourself? Entrepreneurship is a desirable trait. I’m serious – if you like it, and there’s any chance of it working, try. Whether or not you choose to work for yourself, a couple things are of utmost significance.

First, be ethical. If you don’t know what ethics are, ask somebody.

Second, don’t burn yourself out. The statistics mentioned above show a 42 percent burnout rate among employees – that’s too high. It’s become a common trend to try to squeeze everything that can be squeezed out of employees. Don’t go there – it will only lead to burnout and that will not help with your job satisfaction.

My story is uncommon for most, but I’ll share it so you know where I’m coming from. I entered the workforce at my dad’s shoe shop – nothing glamorous, but I made some money and hopefully helped him out. From there, I got a desk job as basically a programmer-in-training for a local dot-com and fell in love with computers even more than I had been previously, and began to expand that love to cover programming and anything else I could play with.

My experiences have left my résumé littered with more buzzwords than you could find in a beehive. I was with that company for quite some time until an opportunity came up to work for a former boss with a different company. I liked working there more than my previous employer, but it became apparent there was something missing. Nothing to do with them, it was all me. I was still with my love, and getting to play with some much cooler stuff.

But a critical spark was gone. When you lose that critical spark, it’s time to consider your option of moving on. I’d felt a calling to ministry and working with nonprofits for some time, and it leapt forward as I was offered a job doing exactly that.

All signs seemed to point go, so I had to resign from a job I hadn’t held that long under a mentor and good friend from a previous job. It was difficult, but necessary and now my “job satisfaction” as well as personal satisfaction has skyrocketed.

Above all, however you get into the career of your dreams, don’t forget those who helped you along.

I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Bill Nye, no not the science guy, for giving me my start, and Jeff Triplett for taking an odd 16-year old kid who was quite flaky and guiding him down the path that made what is now my life possible. Though I’m not directly in the field as much now, Jeff, don’t doubt the impact your influences have had on my life, personal and professional. Thank you.