Dear Bob ... I keep getting the same career advice, and it's both mutually contradictory and mathematically impossible. Which is to say, I'm supposed to do what I love instead of focusing on what the market wants to hire. If I just do that, the money will somehow show up, or so the pundits claim. I'm also, by the way, supposed to choose a career in which I can be in the top ten percent. But it doesn't work Dear Bob …I keep getting the same career advice, and it’s both mutually contradictory and mathematically impossible. Which is to say, I’m supposed to do what I love instead of focusing on what the market wants to hire. If I just do that, the money will somehow show up, or so the pundits claim.I’m also, by the way, supposed to choose a career in which I can be in the top ten percent. But it doesn’t work that way. I love to golf, play tennis, and fish. There just isn’t any way I’ll ever be in the top ten percent of any of these professions, so what’s the point of the advice? Besides, only ten percent of the population is in the top ten percent. What are the rest of us supposed to do – starve to death?– In the next centile at bestDear Centillion … Perhaps you’re being overly literal. But I do sympathize. The advice to do what you love is a case of anecdotes triumphing over statistics: There are enough great stories of people throwing caution to the winds to follow their dream, and successfully making it happen that it’s become part of our folklore.The stories of all those other people who did the same thing, only to retire bitter and impoverished, goes largely untold, even though it’s common knowledge that 70% of all startup businesses fail. I have no advice to give on this score: If nobody took the plunge we’d never get anywhere; if everyone did we’d have a lot of very poor, disappointed people wandering around wondering what happened to their lives.So here’s my advice: Start with a list of professions in which you can be in the top ten percent. I’m pretty sure there is such a list because your math is wrong: While only a tenth of the population can be in the top ten percent, most of the population can be in a top ten percent. Which is to say, there are lots of different professions, and the entire population isn’t trying to succeed in any one of them. So imagine you can think of a hundred different ways to make a living. In round numbers, you’re competing with only one percent of the population in each of them. That should improve your odds quite a bit.Now that you’ve narrowed the field to games in which you can win, choose the one you’ll enjoy playing the most. You might not be able to make a living golfing, fishing, or playing tennis.But at least you’ll be able to afford to play them. And my guess is, you’ll be able to at least tolerate your job as well. – Bob ——– Technology Industry