MANILA, Philippines - The Dream Job was simpler back then. Lawyer, doctor, professional basketball player, astronaut, millionaire — so conventional and confined childhood ambitions were, you’d think there had been a drought of imagination.
It isn’t any better today. Exposed to the radioactive sense of entitlement the Internet emits, aspiration has mutated into the notion that authority can be gained with minimal action. With the digital world at everyone’s fingertips, you can be somebody... with a click. Post photos online and you’re a photographer; document your meal and you’re a food critic; broadcast your thoughts and you become a savant, stature claimed instantly via status message.
Everyone’s got ideas, as the mass mouth-off that is social media has shown, but what separates the bunch we’ve rounded up here is that it doesn’t end with just that. It doesn’t end with them, even; or whatever money, fame, or re-blogs they accumulate. While our list has among it a Sotheby’s-acclaimed artist, a renowned industrial designer, and the rigorously selected Fellows of a Young Leaders Initiative, they all go beyond their lofty designations. One arms abused children with art in order to battle adversity, another creates products that complement rather than defile the earth, and the rest serve to elevate the nation through feats in their respective fields.
That’s what a dream job should be, in fact. More than doing what you love and what you know, you continue to push boundaries. And as passion and action speak decibels louder than the call of duty, you don’t stop learning; and as we’ll learn from these guys, you don’t stop dreaming.