The Gamble

What to do? What to do?

Today’s blog is inspired from a conversation last week with a good friend who shall remain nameless.

We were talking and catching up when he told me that he has become disillusioned with his career.

It is certainly not the first time that a friend has reached out and confessed this to me, knowing full well of my own journey away from the conventional towards meaning.

He started telling me how he had lost all motivation in his current job despite being very well paid and having numerous benefits.

He was thinking of quitting and just starting up with something new which he loved doing as a side project.

He wanted my advice and my perspective on his dilemma and his thoughts.

Clearly whilst I know him very well it would be impossible to understand the full situation within a few brief minutes. I therefore said that I would speak from my own experience, but that ultimately he would have to interpret it with regards to his countless external factors.

I see the money versus meaning equation as “a gamble”.

If you do something purely for the money, you are gambling on a future you do not know will exist. Unfortunately I know several friends who lost parents early on, whom do not take retirement or eternal years as a given concept.

The FIRE model (Financially Independent, Retire Early) is flawed. I have worked with 100s of people who wanted to just save up a certain amount, then they would quit the jobs they hated. To this current day none have quit, not even those who surpassed their initial target and then made the next target much larger.

I would like to say that I have no problem with money being a motivator for people, I would just encourage people to understand the true cost of what they might be giving up in return for it.

This could be time, health, spending time with kids, family & friends, hobbies and ultimately years of your life.

There is no “one size fits all” in this equation. You need to figure out your own formula and then apply it in the degree you wish.

Still feeling lost and don’t know where to start with the gamble? Why not flip a coin and see what happens? Regardless of if it is heads or tails, your gut feeling will let you know your preferred answer.

Happy weekend!

Doggies: Lucy, Lucy, Twist and Haraka