Design Careers: Advice to a Nephew

My nephew Marius is studying design and architecture at the University of Aachen in Germany. 

He currently has an internship with a very interesting architectural firm in Berlin.

They have been sending him to places like Turkey and Korea.

I saw this article in the New York Times and felt inspired to write him about it...

Dear Marius,

I saw this article in the newspaper today and I thought of our conversation about your future career.

I said two things to you:

1. To be financially comfortable in your life, you need to own something: either stocks, or real estate, or intellectual property (like patents or copyrights) OR A BUSINESS. (Financially, owning something is almost always better than just having a job. That is just the nature of capitalism.)

2. We live in a global economy in which service businesses (like design and architecture) will always be competing with cheaper labor in places like China and India.

That's why, in order to succeed, a design or architecture firm must be global (with offices in China, India, etc.).

(As this article points out, the Chinese designers in this company get $590 a month. In England, the same job gets $3800 a month.)

Get where I am going with this?...You need to OWN a business with offices in China, India, etc. (In your case, that would probably be a design or architecture business.)

You probably know all this already, but, as an old man, I am entitled to give unsolicited advice any time I want!

Sincerely,

Your Wise Uncle Thomas