The difference between a job and a vocation is love

The trappings of success can obscure what led to it in the first place.

2 min readSep 23, 2026 06:15 AM IST First published on: Sep 23, 2026 at 06:15 AM IST

What happens to winners of the rat race? Athletes offer the starkest example: Most reach the pinnacle of their career when they are young, and the rest of life can, if they aren’t careful, become a mere reminiscence of the glory days. Then there are the tech bros, with their billions, discovering MMA and bodybuilding, focusing on space and Mars, while the source of their wealth erodes people and nature. Most people accept retirement, hoping merely to rest after a lifetime of labour. For each, though, there is something to learn from Yoshihiko Noda’s quiet devotion to his work.

Noda, finance minister of Japan and prime minister in 2011-12, spends a few hours every morning handing out pamphlets at Minami-Funabashi Station in Chiba. They cover issues such as disaster insurance and governance reform. Noda got his start in Chiba’s local politics and it is a routine that, despite scaling the heights of the political ladder in Tokyo, he has returned to. Visible in his gesture is the difference between a job and a vocation.

The trappings of success can obscure what led to it in the first place. A writer, playing a part in literary salons, forgets the misery and joy of writing. The musician forgets the harmonies and discord that made her great, and the politician forgets the need to make things better. Noda, it seems, has not forgotten what made him choose the career he did. Perhaps the tech bros will take inspiration and stick to building apps.