"Always remember, money isn't everything - but also remember to make a lot of it before talking such foolish nonsense." --By Earl Wilson
Do what you love at 25! Who doesn't want to simply pause for a moment and take a break from the speed corporate life to do some soul searching? But simply wishing won't take you any step closer to identify the “state of mind” that will give pure and perpetual happiness for this lifetime!
Ever wished that time would slow down so that you could
catch up with it? Or that the world would stop spinning for a while so that you
could get off for a while and do the things that you always desired to do? Perhaps
find that deeper fulfillment in life that you always wished for?
Everything was going on so well for me: A well-settled job
with decent compensation, derived snob value from high profile consulting job, a position of seniority (under the experienced mentorship), an opportunity
to relocate and work out of NYC client site, a stable and steady growth track
to a perfect corporate career with C-level networking opportunity (in
conventional sense) and a brilliant B-school app with reference from all
top-shots with whom I had an opportunity to work or make friends with. See this
in the perspective of India where there is an excess supply of talent viz-a-viz
demand for white-collar folks, to that, add a non-technical graduation degree and one can consider themselves an object of envy at the
age 25. I proudly earned all of it!
And I left it all. I decided to take a break on my 25th
b’day and lead a mac-less, blackberry-deprived life in order to find my true
passion.
Let’s say if I had continued with my corporate career: I
would have probably worked for another couple of years from big apple, secured
admission in one of the ivy league college, get millions (INR) in loans from
bank to pay for my MBA just for the sake of doing it and getting over with and then
working and networking my ass off during my MBA to secure that ultra-premium
profile with Blackstone’s, Goldman’s or McKinsey’s of the world. And the
journey would have continued, now with more bank balance, higher
responsibilities and expectations and enormous financial and emotional
attachments. In other words, I would have been trapped in a corporate web for a
lifetime.
So, I decided to slow down, take a step back & search
for an idea, find a purpose that will ignite and fuel my dreams. It was not an overnight
realization. To find a perfect balance between life of passion, one needs to be
flexible enough to sacrifice the lavish corporate lifestyle. It can rarely be
achieved while being engaged in job & taking home hefty amount of money,
making yourself too comfortable living a lifestyle driven by the rewards of
showcasing the spirit of competitiveness. By leading the so-called corporate rate race
in the short-term, one tends to get blinded of their true passion until it is
too late. You tend to move into a safety zone made up of risk-averse cocoon.
But then the complication I faced was at what point do you take the call: Is their any specific age or $ cut-off point to do what you love?
I simply don’t know the answer: For me, I'm just giving
myself few months to realize what I really want to do in life. I
wish to take a break & get out of the system, think through freely of things I truly love to do without the restricted boundaries of career,
society & corporate. Currently, I’m not bound by anything; I can
easily break-free from the monotonous lifestyle of drifting from one weekend to
another. The desire to self-fund my dreams and “live-through” and find my "What Makes ME Happy" state has led to my decision. I wish to Explore, Travel, Meditate!
At the early stages of life, we have the flexibility to do
what we love to, what we truly want to do. But the irony of life @ young age is
most of us are too busy planning out the next phase to live better than the
present and are left with no time to think through what we really want from our
lives! We live life on a very fast track and get carried away with the herd mentality of our peer group until our age or our health gets the
better of us. It's ok even if we just try and don't know what we want to do
from our life. At least, the exploration process helps us to figure out early
during our life about what we don't want to do which is equally important.
The choice is ours- either we let our life take us where it
wants, or we take control of our life and actively drive where we want to go.
Infected by
“What Makes YOU Happy"
syndrome!
Having a purpose in
life and cultivating self-discipline to achieve such purpose is the most
essential ingredient to a great life
of perpetual happiness
 |
| © Shubho Broto Das |
PS: What stopped me so far was the typical middle class mindset of being averse to failure, simply because I had never really seen real failure. Now I’m in a position that even if I fail I can always go back to B-school and re-enter corporate life but at least without any regret and an invaluable experience!!! Also, my burnout and runaway analysis shows enough buffer savings to survive for 3 years at 0 income with a moderate lifestyle and travel expenditure. Having a substantial savings at 25 with a 100% debt free footloose life (irrespective of my parents money) is certainly an advantage. I have the flexibility to choose the path of righteousness/passion/happiness/purpose and self-fund my dream with a 'guilt-free' mind!
