Sep 30, 2005 -- Think about what makes you happy, not about what makes you the most money, The Wall Street Journal Managing Editor Paul E. Steiger told students at Yeshiva University’s Sy Syms School of Business on Tuesday Sept. 27. Mr. Steiger managing editor of The Wall Street Journal and a vice president of Dow Jones & Company, discussed “Society’s Intensified Demand for Business Professionals” at YU’s undergraduate business school as part of a series that will help convey to students what is happening in the business community, said Ira L. Jaskoll, interim dean of the Sy Syms School of Business. Mr. Steiger, who has interviewed many of the world’s most successful people, told a story about Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, and Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft. Mr. Gates is a “born businessman,” who constantly is looking at opportunities from a business angle. By dominating the operating system field, something few people think about, he has become a multi-billionaire, Mr. Steiger explained. Mr. Steiger called Mr. Jobs “enormously creative,” and rattled off the many innovative products he has debuted: the personal computer, the iPod, and platforms for movie studio animation. But Mr. Steiger pointed out that it takes both of these skills to be a well-rounded, and successful, entrepreneur. “On some level of consciousness, Gates would like to be Jobs, and Jobs would like to be Gates,” Mr. Steiger said. The lesson one can learn from moguls like Mr. Jobs, Mr. Gates, and countless other business personalities is to “do what seems like fun for you.” “When you find something you care about, don’t be afraid to study it more carefully,” Mr. Steiger said. Mr. Steiger also discussed what he sees as the outlook for the U.S. economy, and delivered the students some unhappy news. “For all of your lives the U.S. economy has been in a growth mode,” Mr. Steiger said. But Mr. Steiger said he believes the trends of growth in the economy are going to run out in the next two to three years. “When you are launching your careers you are going to be in a tougher economic climate than the people ahead of you,” Mr. Steiger said. Still, Mr. Steiger’s talk was not all gloom and doom. He suggested that students who have a solid background in economics and finance will have the skills they need to weather an economic downturn. And he posited that healthcare, high tech and entertainment are the fields to watch in the next 10 years. But most importantly, he encouraged the students to be true to themselves. “You need to think about what kind of person you want to be,” Mr. Steiger said. Ariel Fischer, a junior at Sy Syms School of Business, said he was most interested in Mr. Steiger’s predictions about the future of the U.S. economy. “I thought what he said about Baby Boomers moving the economy in the future was interesting,” Mr. Fischer said. Dean Jaskoll said he was pleased that Mr. Steiger reinforced the need for a balance between “the traditional and the innovative.” “Some people will succeed no matter what,” Dean Jaskoll said. “But if you have your education you always have something to fall back on.”