The Pathless Path — A Challenge to Our Perceived Default Path

The book in 1 paragraph

The overarching message that I took after reading the book was to challenge the perceived Default Path that is presumed by majority of workers — and even students — in the current market. The Pathless Path offers a thought process that the readers could adopt in order to challenge the aforementioned default path. Paul Millerd also puts his own relationship with work and the thoughts that he had that built up the journey towards quitting his prestigious job, sprinkled with a lot of interactions that he had with others that was on successful journeys of Pathless Path that he proposed in the book.

My headspace while reading this book

When I started reading the book, I had just finished The Tipping Point and was inspired by the thought of implementing the ideas that were presented in the book (ie how could I be a better salesman — the role that I identified the most from Law of the Few) and during this time I was also driven to improve my capacity to be a better Business Development practitioner. I liked how the Tipping Point impacted my daily thought process and I was on a high to gather more knowledge like this, and I stumbled upon The Pathless Path while looking through books that I could read in 2023 on YouTube — Ali Abdaal’s Books to read in 2023.

Furthermore, I felt like the synopses that I read about the pathless path connected with me. There are a lot of reviews that suggested the book helps them in having healthier relationship with their career. While I think I have a healthy relationship with my work, I feel like I could still get better in the context of my career.

My Impressions

I love how Paul Millerd presented his ideas and journey. The book felt like it was written like a long story presented by a friend that you haven’t caught up with in years and they are retelling their journey in the past few years. The writing style was also presented in a way it was relatable and hits home a lot of times, making them quotable — My contemplation notebook was filled every 1 or 2 pages of flipping the book. I knew Paul Millerd from reading his book at first, but I subscribed to his weekly newsletter now as I got more interested in more of his ideas.

I think for people who feel stuck with their career, this would be a good book to start as it was a very light read that could be picked up any time of the day.

Note: If you like this book you might also like So Good They Can’t Ignore You

Deliverables from reading the book

As mentioned in my first ever article on Medium, I try to be mindful of the contents that I consume and actually implement the ideas presented in those contents. So I try to have some key takeaways in form of deliverables that I would like to try in the future, and here are the takeaways:

• Challenge the default path — Outside of my current traditional role, where else could I make an impact? In general it’s finding a different context where I could use my skills, and in my current role, how could I be creative and give impact differently?
• Connect and experiment — Am I currently surrounding myself in a bubble of my own making? Who are the people that I tend to surround myself with? Is there a way to help others in different bubbles with the skills that I have? In connection to the first deliverable, what experiments could I do to challenge the default path?
• Commit and be patient — I have to be mindful and be aware that the experiments that I do will mostly yield failures. Changes does not happen overnight and I have to commit to explore the Pathless Path.

Top 3 Quotes

The book was filled with inspiring and sometimes even heartwarming quotes, so it was hard to pick my top 3, but here are my favorite ones:

1.

Behind money fears are existential fears, like the fear of death or the fear of not being loved, respected and admired…
… Financial worries can be infinite and people can chase more and more their entire lives. Learn to co-exist with your financial insecurity

2.

To thrive we must ignore the shiny objects and the distractions and strip away the stories that are not our own to remember who we are.

3.

Abdicating our responsibility to live our own lives can have dire consequences…
… We are ultimately the ones that determine our fate, and without expressing agency, we struggle to be free