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What would you do if you had $100 million?

Design is life.

Shahed's design table at career fair.

I asked this question to high school kids at a career fair. I wanted them to consider what type of work they’d enjoy doing if they didn’t have to work for a paycheck.

$100 million is a lot of money. It’s generational wealth. Once you’re done investing and enjoying, you’ll need to do something with all of your free time. If you can align the work from this thought exercise with your career path, you’re set.

When I was in grade school in the UAE, I was only presented with two career paths: engineering or medicine. I was terrible at both math and science, so I was done for.

When I moved to the US in 10th grade, I was amazed at all the electives I could pick: Graphic Design! Architecture! Photography?! I wanted to take them all. I chose Architecture. My teacher was awesome, and he was the first person in my life that brought structure to my creativity. He shared an idea that changed my life:

He became an architect because he could turn ideas into buildings. Seeing an idea that existed only in his mind turn into living spaces where people lived, worked, and interacted, was magical. The act of creation brought meaning to his life.

I wanted to do that too. I wanted to create and see my work being used.

When I discussed careers with my friends in my senior year of high school, one friend said his dream job was to do…nothing. He didn’t care for work. But he wanted enough money to be able to do nothing. So he worked hard, graduated at the top of his class, and started a successful business that made him millions.

Now he lives his dream of doing nothing.

I couldn’t do that. I would continue designing even if I had all the money in the world.

My design career has shifted from architecture, to graphic design, to data visualization, to UX. And I’ve loved every moment of it.

Design is life.

P.S. I adjusted the “Office Space” million dollar question for inflation because nothing is affordable anymore.

P.P.S. I showed the high school kids how I design UIs using TikTok as an example. I pulled up TikTok mockups in Figma on my laptop and a mirror prototype on my phone. The kids changed button colors on the laptop and saw it update live on the phone. They loved the demo.

P.P.P.S. I’ve never used TikTok. I hear that’s how kids communicate with the federal government.




I tweaked this on Wed Jan 29 2025 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)