Where do I see myself in five years?

It’ll be December 2015. For reference, Justin Bieber will be 21. I’ll be 26, one short of the great Jimi Hendrix. Where do I see my career? Hopefully I’ll have taken care of my parents, and the other debts I need to repay. I’ll most likely be a mid-level strategy consultant in a major metropolis, for a large multinational corporation.

What else matters? I’d like a damn good boss, someone I can respect and learn an immense amount from. I’d like a job I believe in, to fulfill the challenge set by my high-school yearbook to leave this a better world than I found it. I’d like a corporate culture that invigorated rather than restrained, aided rather than irritated, innovated rather than maintained. I’d like to leave the company after five, ten or fifteen years; knowing that I helped them to be a better company, they helped me to be a better person, and society benefited from our mutual trade.

The rest? Which country will I live in? Which benefit scheme? Which company car? Which 401K? Which name written on my pay cheques? That’s not my concern.