How I Learned that the Career You Choose Is the Liberty You Live 

By Haddy Joof

I see it all around me. I’ll bet you do, too. Many people my age only conceive of a job as something to endure. Something to clock in and out of, before getting home to your “real” life — which basically just lasts until you go to sleep. Rinse, repeat. (Learn Liberty made a great video about this mindset, by the way. It’s called: How I Stopped Hating the World.)

I suspect this approach sank in at school, which really is like that — especially mandatory public schooling: When the bell rang at the end of the day, you were “free,” but until then, you belonged to the school.

But being in SFL showed me that a job is a choice, and that a career is more than a paycheck. It’s a reflection of your values, your worldview, and the kind of world you want to live in. Because, unlike in school, no one is forcing you to work.

Now, I know this isn’t some grand, revolutionary idea. It’s straight out of Rand, of course, and her system of morality. Ludwig von Mises also famously argued that our choices in economic and social life reveal the underlying preferences that shape the course of human action.

But it WAS a revolutionary idea to me.

See, when I was a teenager, my family often teased that I would grow up to be a journalist because of how many questions I asked and how determined I was not to be kept in the dark. I wanted to know every detail about everything, and I was never shy about sharing my thoughts or standing up in discussions.

So, even back then, I believed in my potential as a changemaker — someone who could contribute not only to my local community but also to the wider national and global communities.

But joining Students For Liberty was like an accelerator, adding fuel to the flame. Because, as I met other SFLers, and as I went through the rigorous educational programming that SFL provides, I realized how freedom shapes all aspects of life.  

One peer who shaped my understanding of professional freedom was Iman Amirullah, the former Country Coordinator for SFL Indonesia. Iman showed me that leadership isn’t about directing people but about creating the conditions where they can grow. Anne Struffman, from SFL Edinburgh, who helped me organize “Liberty and Youth Empowerment: Shaping the Leaders of Tomorrow,” an online program in October 2024, helped show me how freedom in your professional choices can empower others.

And our “What Is Democracy?” event, where I was the primary organizer, supported by Fadel Imam Muttaqin, the current Country Coordinator for SFL Indonesia, was one of my earliest offline, in-person experiences with SFL. I still remember realizing there that being a professional, and a leader, means more than having a job or a title — it’s about creating spaces where ideas can be tested and where people can build confidence in their own ability to contribute to society.

But just as importantly, at that event, it felt like I had found my people. I mean, I’ll bet anything that the people there also got teased at home about one day growing up to be journalists.

Anyway, I never could have anticipated, before I joined SFL, how profoundly the choice of a career could commit me to certain philosophical underpinnings.

For example, when most people think about choosing a career, they focus on practical questions. Which field pays the most? Which jobs are in demand? Which skills guarantee stability? They might not ask these questions consciously, but their actions and choices reveal their preferences.

Capitalism, for example, is not merely an economic system; it is the recognition that individuals should be free to create value according to their own ideas, without needing permission from authorities or gatekeepers. If you work in an open market, in a competitive field, you have little choice but to recognize that. 

In my experience with SFL, I met entrepreneurs building small businesses in challenging environments, journalists refusing to let censorship silence their work, and students leveraging technology to connect communities across borders.

This is another reason I’m so grateful to have joined Students For Liberty: My fellow student volunteers inspired me without even really trying. They did it by being living proof that your career is also a platform for living out your values, and that the decision to work in a particular field is, in its own way, a decision about the kind of society you want to live in. 

Yes, SFL’s network taught me how to defend liberty by advocating for it directly — in my writing, in my discussions with peers, by protesting or disobeying unjust laws. But even deeper than that, it instilled in me the idea that defending liberty can and must be a daily practice. 

That is so incredibly empowering. Because, among other things, it means that I can defend liberty by living and working in ways that respect the freedom of others. I can defend liberty just by supporting systems that enable those choices for everyone — whether building a business, coding new tools, or teaching classes. It can all be an act of advocacy, even if you never mention Ayn Rand’s name, or Ludwig von Mises’s. (As it happens, Rothbard said this in For a New Liberty, but the point stands even if I hadn’t named him or cited his book.)

I need not name Friedrich Hayek, either — another thinker I wouldn’t have read without SFL. He said it beautifully: that freedom is “the absence of coercion,” and a precondition for innovation and progress. But again, I now know I can be a powerful force for freedom without those big words.

Because, in the end, what I learned is that the question is not only “What job do I want?” but also “What values do I want my work to reflect?”

If you ask that, and if your career aligns with your beliefs, you are not just making a living. You are shaping the world. You are, as the quote goes, being the change you wish to see.

About the Author  

Haddy Joof is an SFL volunteer in Indonesia, part of SFL’s Asia-Pacific region. Originally from The Gambia, she is passionate about promoting freedom and responsible leadership. She says, “Through Students For Liberty Asia-Pacific, I have worked closely with peers from across the region, collaborating across languages, traditions, and belief systems. These experiences in cultural diversity continue to shape my advocacy, making me more aware, more empathetic, and more effective in connecting with people from all walks of life.”