Maxim

Pursue what is meaningful, not what is merely profitable.

Chase the thing that matters to you rather than the quick reward. A life built around meaning tends to carry its own momentum.

Related expressions

• “Pursue what is meaningful (not what is expedient).”

  — Jordan B. Peterson, 12 Rules for Life (2018), Rule 7 (rule title); Random House Canada edition, checked against the book's contents as shown on Google Books (that listing drops punctuation)
  Watch on YouTube (0:23–0:40) ↗Jordan B. Peterson discusses this rule (fan upload)
  Watch on YouTube: Wasting Time and Opportunities (fan upload) ↗Jordan B. Peterson discusses this idea
  Modern psychology & self-helpContemporary (1950 – today)relation: expressesVerifiedsource

• “Do what you love and the money will follow; if you say that getting the money is the most important thing, you will spend your life completely wasting your time.”

  — Alan Watts (popular attribution), Popular paraphrase of the 'What if money was no object?' talk; exact wording not traced. The second clause is widely quoted from the talk in books (seen via Internet Archive full-text search) but no transcript or recording was checked; "Do what you love, the money will follow" is not his phrase (it is the title of a 1987 book by Marsha Sinetar)
  Western interpreters of Zen & TaoismContemporary (1950 – today)relation: similarUnverifiedno source yet

• “If a man knows the wherefore of his existence, then the manner of it can take care of itself.”

  — Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols (1889), “Maxims and Missiles” 12, tr. Anthony M. Ludovici (often quoted as “He who has a why to live can bear almost any how”)
  Watch on YouTube: Jordan Peterson on feeling aimless ↗Jordan Peterson on feeling aimless (Theo Von clip)
  Watch on YouTube: Simon Sinek on finding your passion ↗Simon Sinek on passion and purpose (fan compilation)
  19th-century German philosophyModern (1800 – 1950)relation: similarVerifiedsourceTranslation: public-domain translation (Anthony M. Ludovici)

• “Follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be.”

  — Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth (1988, with Bill Moyers), p. 120; checked on the Joseph Campbell Foundation site
  Watch on YouTube (4:03–4:10) ↗
  Watch on YouTube: Randy Pausch's Last Lecture ↗Randy Pausch discusses this idea
  Comparative mythologyContemporary (1950 – today)relation: similarVerifiedsource

Score

Moral Rank 67.2 · Evidence E = 15.05

E = ln(1+2.56) + √2.56 + 3·2.56 + 1.5·3 = 15.05

How this is scored

Further reading

• Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning (Wikipedia)
• Jordan B. Peterson, 12 Rules for Life (Open Library)