The One Question That Led to My First Book

I’m sure you’ve asked yourself the same thing.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

I don’t know about you, but I’ve always hated this question. In theory, it’s meant to help a bunch of tiny weirdos dream big as they imagine their future selves but oftentimes, it instead teaches us the first crushing lesson about being an adult: you are your job. You will spend at least a third of your life doing it, society will use it to calculate your value, and everyone you meet will inevitably judge you based on it.

If I could go back in time and talk to my 10-year-old self when he was trying to answer this very question, two things would happen:

1) He would be confused as to how I grew a beard, and;

2) He would probably slap the shit out of me after hearing what I do for work.

He would likely think What the hell happened to you, man? You were supposed to grow up and be a famous comic book artist! What does a “corporate consultant” even do?!

You know what? I wouldn’t blame him one bit. After all, he (we?) had big dreams of turning his (our?) obsession with comic books into a sexy, lifelong career and now, it’s simply a hobby.