I think everyone (well, most people) go through that feeling, and there is no real answer for it.  I think part of the solution is finding something that you love, then looking for ways to make money from it.  If you look for ways to make money, and then try to narrow it down to something you like doing, then you’re limiting yourself to your choices by trying to choose something that already exists.  If you can say “I love (activity), what are ways that I can make money doing this…” then you’re open to picking from existing jobs or finding coming up with something that hasn’t been done before.  Obviously it also depends on how much money you want to make, how much you have to invest in yourself and how long you want to do that career.

I know exactly how he feels when he takes an idea to management and they reject it without even really reviewing it.  I’ve told you at least one story from my last job.  That’s going to be the difference between forward looking companies and companies that get left behind…willingness to take direction from people that aren’t traditionally their leaders.  Our generation grew up learning how to do things better and faster, but industries haven’t adjusted the work place to fit the workers they have. The ones that can adapt the fastest will be the ones that are most successful in the next 3-5 years, because I think that’s all the amount of time that it will take for productivity to increase once a company is willing to implement the changes that could be made.

-Mike