Issue #3: A Road Less Traveled
Hi friends, welcome to Ad Astra! It’s so good to have you here. Today I want to discuss a topic that carries many names: being your own boss, forging your path, taking a road less traveled, following your dreams... Take a moment and think about work (perhaps your own, or that of your friends and family). Does the structure of work you’ve just thought of look more or less the same, or does it vary greatly from person to person? At its core, employment hasn’t changed much since the Industrial Revolution. We go to work, we clock in, we clock out, we get a salary. We help create and then execute plans for how to grow an organization, sell more widgets, gain more customers, increase revenues, and so on. We give our time, efforts, brainpower, and enthusiasm and in exchange, we gain security, status, certain financial freedom, and validation. When that equation works, it’s wonderful. There is nothing wrong with being gainfully employed by someone, being good at what you do and enjoying it, and reaping the rewards. Perhaps contrary to a lot of popular opinion on Instagram and elsewhere, I believe that not everyone wants to be an entrepreneur, a freelancer, a hustler, or his or her own boss — and that’s great! Unfortunately, that equation did not work for me. I’ve reached the American dream, with my MBA and my six-figure salary, but what I found there wasn’t fulfillment or joy, but a lot of stress and a goalpost that kept moving further and further away. The times, they are a-changing. Even though the employment model has largely remained the same since the Industrial Revolution, our world has changed drastically. We experience greater mobility than our parents and grandparents ever did, jet hopping from New York to Casablanca in a matter of hours. We can work from anywhere, which was unthinkable in an era of conveyor belts. We seek from life a greater sense of fulfillment, we strive to be our best selves, we want to actualize our dreams and potentials. I see this shift happening in many conversations that are bubbling up all around me. And I think it is a worthwhile endeavor to pursue the dreams and visions that go beyond your current job or profession. As one of my favorite poets, Mary Oliver, says: “The most regretful people on earth are those who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and uprising, and gave it neither power nor time.” I think this applies more broadly than creativity though: if you hear a call that beckons you away from what you currently do, you have to honor this call and give it power and time. (And by a ‘call’, I don’t mean that you would know exactly what you were put on this earth to do, but that you’d recognize that what you’re currently doing is not it.) The most regretful people on earth are those who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and uprising, and gave it neither power nor time. — Mary Oliver The day I walked out of my office for the last time was the scariest and the happiest day of my life. That day, I set out on a precarious journey of building my vision. I did not know exactly how I was going to do it, but I knew I needed to start. The security of corporate employment, real or imagined, was no longer enough to justify staying in a career that was not the right fit. So I took the leap and transitioned to a different lifestyle, pursuing my lifelong dream of becoming a travel photographer, writer, and entrepreneur. I had no blueprint of what to do. Our schools, organizations, and societies don’t teach us how to forge our own paths. They teach us how to fit into a system that still follows that old employment model. So I had to learn the hard way: by trial and error. Over the last four years, I’ve hit many dead ends. I’ve also made progress and learned a few things from this wild ride. Today, I want to share my essential ten with you: 1. Get used to people telling you ‘no’. We o
