????“嘿，爸爸生病了。我們正送他去醫(yī)院。”

????我呆坐在那里。與洛杉磯的家遠隔5,000英里。我的家人正在遭遇一場危機，但我卻不在他們身邊。我的孤獨跨越了太平洋。

????我最快也要坐16個小時飛機才能回到那里。

????“他說心臟不舒服，他動不了了。我等會再打給你。”

????我能感覺到房間陷入一片死寂，這種感覺似乎布滿了四周的墻壁。環(huán)繞在我耳邊的聲音若隱若現(xiàn)，我恍恍惚惚如墜夢魘。我陷入瘋狂。我想四處走動，試圖讓大腦變得清醒，結(jié)果膝蓋撞上了咖啡桌、椅子和其他東西，我已經(jīng)回想不起當時的情形。雖然我獲得了巨額財富和令人炫目的成功，但這些東西都無法幫助我。我患病的父親遠在千里之外。我所擁有的一切沒有任何意義。他到醫(yī)院了嗎？他看過醫(yī)生了嗎？他出了什么問題？他能夠痊愈嗎？如果他無法度過難關(guān)，我該怎么辦？

????五六個小時后，我得到了最新消息。父親很好。他已經(jīng)回家休息了。醫(yī)生開了藥，并囑咐了注意事項，以防心臟病再次發(fā)作。

????我放棄了當時的職位，回到離家近的地方工作。公司仍會派我到世界各地。我會接受某些任務，但我不再享受工作。我的工作讓我遠離了生活中真正重要的東西——家庭。

????我最終辭去了那份工作，開始了一份不同的職業(yè)。這份工作讓我可以每周至少見一次家人。

????現(xiàn)在，每到周六，我都會擁抱我的父親，擁抱我的母親，擁抱我的弟弟，陪著我們的寵物狗玩耍。

????瑪格麗特?韋斯的回答，正在培訓中的金融業(yè)者

????如果目前的工作正在慢慢粉碎你的靈魂，那么答案是肯定的。在每天飽受折磨和生存的機會之間，我選擇生活。

????如果當前的工作是可以忍受的，那么答案是否定的；新職位并不能保證一定有所不同，而且對于我的家眷和家人，我有義不容辭的責任。所以，在職業(yè)幸福感和責任之間，我選擇責任。

????我認為只要降低工資要求，會有許多適合的工作，所以繼續(xù)尋找吧——這肯定不是你能找到的最后一份工作。

????KP?魏的回答，作家

????幾年前，我也有過類似的經(jīng)歷，雖然當時我的工資沒有回答這個問題的其他人那么高。

????我辭去了一份穩(wěn)定的工作，因為我開始慢慢對它失去了興趣，我想找一份我認為最適合自己的工作，即便這份工作的薪酬更低。我發(fā)現(xiàn)這是進入那個快速成長的行業(yè)的一次好機會，盡管不能確保成功。

????可惜的是，兩年后，我發(fā)現(xiàn)所謂的機會其實并不存在。我過得很開心，也很喜歡做一些完全不同的事情。然而，工資的差距太過巨大，而且我抓住的所謂機會并未帶來成功。

????如果你有許多債務（如住房貸款、孩子教育等），那么堅持薪酬更高的工作，就更有意義。這取決于你更重視什么，以及是否有哪些事情制約著你，例如家庭和債務等。從年薪120,000美元降到50,000美元，還是有天壤之別的。（財富中文網(wǎng)）

????譯者：劉進龍/汪皓

????“Hey, it’s about dad. We’re taking him to the hospital.”

????Here I sat. Over 5,000 miles away from my home in Los Angeles. My family is having a crisis, I am nowhere near them. My loneliness stretched itself across the pacific.

????The earliest I could get there was a 16-hour flight.

????“He says it’s his heart and he can’t move. I’ll call you later.”

????I could feel the silence in the room, as if the walls were coated in it. Surrounding and canceling, any-and-all audio that might have made me feel the reality of the world never reached my ears. Madness took me over. I attempted to walk and pace to clear my head but my knees met with the coffee table, the chair, and a few other things I can’t even recall. Of all the money and all the success I could obtain, none of it could help me. My ailing father was thousands of miles away. What I truly had was nothing. Did he arrive? Was he seen by a doctor? What is the problem? Can it be fixed? What if he didn’t make it?

????I was updated five or six hours later. Dad’s fine. He’s home resting already. Doctor gave medication and instructions if there’s another heart attack.

????I gave up my position, went back to work closer to home. The company still attempted to send me out to various international places. I would go on some of them, but I didn’t enjoy my work anymore. My work kept me away from what was truly important in my life. Family.

????I eventually gave up my job and started a different career. One that would allow me to see my family at minimum, once a week.

????Now, every Saturday, I hug my father, hug my mother, hug my brother, and pet our dog.

????Answer by Margaret Weiss, financier in training

????The answer would be yes if the current job is slowly crushing your soul. So between being tormented each and every day and a chance of survival, I would choose life.

????The answer would be no if the current job is tolerable; the new position has no guarantees of being any different, and I have obligations toward my dependents/my family. So between a chance of professional happiness and my responsibility, I choose being responsible.

????I think there are many jobs that can be taken at a pay cut, so continue searching – this is certainly not the last job available in your location.

????Answer by KP Wee, writer

????I had a similar experience several years back, although the salary figures involved weren’t as high as the ones posted in the question.

????I left a stable position, which I started to lose interest in gradually to pursue a job that I thought was perfect for me, even though it paid much less. I figured it was a good opportunity to get into that growing industry, though there were no guarantees.

????Alas, two years later, I found that the opportunities weren’t there. I had fun, and I enjoyed doing something completely different. However, the difference in salaries was huge, and the opportunities that I gambled on didn’t truly pan out.

????If you are a person who has lots of financial obligations (ie. mortgage, kids’ education, etc.), then it makes more sense to stick with the higher-paying job. It depends on what you value more, and whether or not you are tied down to anything, such as family and debts, etc. Going from $120,000 a year down to $50,000 a year is a big difference.