I am officially at a crossroads right now. Not a simple one, I tell you. You see, I could choose the conventional route and get lost in the world of ‘coders’ who code their way to death. Or I could stay put, decline the blooming job, take my time and reflect on my goals (a term I don’t fully understand) and then with huge risks and burdens on my shoulders, I could start a new venture.
The problem is, this is exactly what a million other people who are at a similar crossroads think about. I’m no different from them. I am a mechanical engineer and I am supposed to be looking for a blue-collar job that would make me sweat day in and day out. Instead I try to console myself by amplifying the perks of a white-collar job regardless of the throwaway salary being offered.
Nothing is fair in life. Especially the choices. Nobody wants to experiment and carve out their own path. A nine-to-five job where you work really hard day after day to accomplish your boss’s dreams, come home with barely 10 per cent charge on your body, eat, sleep, repeat. All this for a salary that might barely pay your rent? This is the traditional path everyone is so keen to tread.
I’m no visionary. I don’t have any guidelines or a fixed set of goals set for my life as yet. And when you don’t have these goals you tend to choose the easy way out. But fast-forward 50 years (if you make it, which people don’t seem to these days with these kind of jobs) and you are going to wonder who hit the fast forward button in the first place. You are not born to pay your bills and die. All those beautiful places you always wanted to visit, those joyful moments you want to have with your family and friends, the midnight ride through the Alpines, the roar of a V12, the thrill of skydiving, or even something as simple as enjoying the sunrise with a steaming mug of coffee, make who you are.
The accumulation of moments such as these is what defines you. Don’t just give up on these for a job that you don’t enjoy working on. Seek your real passion and enjoy and live the moments as they come. So start right today. So will I. Get out there and figure out your true passion and work on it. Hustle on it. A day will come when your empire is finally ready and you will thank yourself for not having followed the crowd and for having struck out on your own. Who knows, the crowd could even be your peasants.
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