If you spend your workdays doing what you want to do, instead of what you have to do, consider yourself a success. You don't have to wait till you've reached some mythical plateau of achievement, you're successful each and every day. And there's no better way to spend your workdays doing work that you feel is important, and work that is worth doing, than working for a nonprofit.

In fact, an increasing number of successful executives, dismayed by the lack of meaning in their lives, and by how little of what they do in their work has personal meaning for them, are leaving the corporate world for the lower paid but far more rewarding world of the nonprofit.

I asked a man who made the move to a nonprofit upon turning 55 if he didn't wish, in hindsight, that he'd waited a bit longer so that his pension would've been based on a larger number of his higher earning years. His response was to say that he did indeed have a big regret, and that this regret was that he'd spent so many years of his life doing work he found meaningless and unrewarding. If he had it to do over again, he assured me, he would've spent his entire career engaged in work he found meaningful.

Our lives go by in a flash. If you spend your days doing work you enjoy, so that each day is one which brings with it the knowledge that you've accomplished something of significance, there can be no greater reward. Don't be afraid to listen to your heart, and to follow your passion. You may find that working for a nonprofit brings you greater true success than you ever dreamed possible.

Learn more about this author, David Riel.
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