How I Quit My Soul Sucking Career (and What I Happily Do Instead)
Do you ever find yourself wondering: “What should I do with my life?”
This isn’t the first time you’ve wondered this.
As a child, nearly every adult asks you what you want to be when you grow up. Your heart tells you that you’d like to be an artist, or a professional athlete, or a world-famous singer.
“That’s cute!” the adults say, “as long as you work hard and focus, you can become anything you want!”
Wow. Anything you want? That’s amazing. The adult labor market sounds like an ocean of limitless possibility. How fun. You can’t wait to be a grown-up.
Fast-forward.
You’re 18. You’re a legal adult now. You have to decide on a college. You have to decide on a major. You have to decide on the future direction of your entire life.
Again, you ask yourself:
“What should I do with my life?”
Your parents just want you to “be happy” and “follow your passion”.
So you tell your parents what you love. You tell them your passion. You tell them about the career that would make you happy. This time — they don’t look so thrilled.
“That just isn’t reasonable for most people,” they tell you, “how about something a little more practical?”
Your deadbeat high-school guidance counselor agrees. He tells you to study business instead. “The world needs business and business equals money!” he says, “Those student-loans will pay for themselves!”
You listen to everyone’s well-sounding advice — because you realize you have no idea what you’re doing. After all, these are fully-grown adults — and fully-grown adults know exactly what they’re talking about.
Fast-forward.
You go through college. You study for that fancy pants degree. You put yourself out there and find a job. You work hard to please people. It’s all a little different and interesting. This isn’t so bad.
Years pass. You’re bored out of your mind. You suffer through your commute so you can quickly rush to a job you hate. The monotony wears you down. You’ve become a corporate drone. Somewhere along the way, you lost your spark.
So you ask yourself a familiar question:
“What should I do with my life?”
You have no idea.
You’re stuck.
And you’re looking to re-ignite that dwindling passion.
Two thirds of the American workforce feel unfulfilled and disengaged with their careers.
Are you one of them?
I know how you feel.
Here’s my story.
Despite a strong desire to go to art school — I was pressured to attend a big fancy business University instead.
The University was located in one of those picturesque New England towns with rolling green hills. The school was filled with beautiful brick buildings with prestigious white columns. It had those enormous classroom stadiums with expensive high-tech smart boards.
It looked like a college should. It smelled like a college should. And to anyone taking a tour — it all appeared to embody the potential for success, respect, and achievement.
As long as I dropped my creative ambitions, focused on something practical, and studied business instead — I would get a good job and be well on my way towards a success and happiness.
Or so I was told.
One summer, I had the opportunity to work for a hedge fund in the center of New York City.
I had the opportunity to get real world business experience. I had the opportunity to move to New York. I had the opportunity to add another line on my resume to make me feel more accomplished and successful.
Attend a big fancy University? Check!
Study for a business degree? Check!
Work in New York City finance? Check!
On paper, it all looked great.
But when it came time to work in NYC finance — I was miserable. I was bored. I hated the work and I had no idea what to do.
Day after day — I put my my head down in that depressing gray cubicle and prayed for the monotony to end — wondering if this was a taste of the dull life ahead of me.
I rationalized my agony.
Maybe I’m just being too dramatic. Maybe I just need to get used to this. Maybe this is just the way life is supposed to be. Or maybe my heart was trying to tell me something.
Was I living my own life — or was I pursuing someone else’s?
In the midst of my corporate misery and boredom — I realized that I had spent my life chasing shiny illusions of titles and success. I had spent my life telling myself what so many others had repeated: Get into college. Study something practical. Work hard. Become successful — and eventually you will be happy.
So why wasn’t I happy?
There was no escape. I felt exhausted before the day even began. I spent every moment at my job thinking about the weekend — and I spent every moment of my weekend thinking about my agonizing job.
My finance career was crushing my soul.
Sometimes our anxiety is actually our intuition trying to send us a message.
And all we need to do is listen.
My intuition was telling me that the path I was on wasn’t working. It was telling me that I was unhappy for a reason. It was telling me that something needed to change.
All too often we suffocate our heart and intuition — labeling our safe life choices as merely being “practical”.
This time, I decided to listen.
And I decided to quit the world of finance. I decided to quit studying for my business degree. I decided to quit that fancy University.
And when I had to figure out how to start over, I asked myself a familiar question:
“What should I do with my life?”
I let my heart and intuition lead the way.
The moments that excited me most had nothing to do with numbers or logic or math — and yet I blindly made major life decisions that brought more of it into my life.
Finance did not excite me.
Creativity excited me.
Design excited me.
Art excited me.
For as long as I could remember — these were the things that my heart and intuition loved.
But so what? I was a long way off from being some professional creative type. And plus, I had already invested all of this time, energy, and tens of thousands of dollars in student loans pursuing a finance career. Was I crazy to start over?
My fear began to creep in.
Our fears are not the same thing as our hearts.
Fear is what imagines failure and self-doubt and worst case scenarios. Fear is what keeps people from following their passions. Fear is that voice telling you to just do something practical.
Our hearts on the other hand —show us the things that we love. It shows us the things that excite us. It shows us the things we should pursue. It shows us the things that light up our soul.
So when I had a choice between listening to what I feared or following what I loved — I chose to follow love.
But why should anyone care?
Who was going to pay me for it?
And how was I going to get there?
It is true that many people follow their passion, but can’t develop a well-paying career.
I knew it was very unlikely anyone would pay me to sit around and make finger paintings all day.
So I asked myself:
Who is making money doing what I love?
What creative skills do I need in order to add value to others?
What will it take to develop these skills?
If I could use my passion to help others, to serve people’s needs, and to solve people’s problems — I knew I could eventually get paid for my creative passion.
But I wasn’t even close — and I had a lot of work to do.
I decided to apply to art school.
Months later — I painfully got rejected.
So I continued to practice art at every waking hour.
And then I applied again.
I had this do-whatever-it-takes determination because there was no way in hell I was returning to a career where everyday I woke up hating my job. I knew what that was like and I wasn’t going back.
Nearly a full year later — my do-whatever-it-takes mentality paid off, and I was finally accepted into my art school of choice.
I practiced color theory and photography and logo design. I learned advertising and branding and how to create websites. I worked with anyone who was willing — often times completely for free. For years, I stayed up late to practice and hone my creative passion.
And I’ve never looked back.
Switching careers was one of the most profoundly positive and life-altering moments I’ve ever had. I never could have imagined the amazing journey my intuition was leading me.
Ten years later — I’ve had the great pleasure of designing for Fortune 500 companies, big fashion brands, and now for innovative tech companies here in San Francisco.
There’s no greater joy than using my passion to help design global brands people love — and design world-changing apps people need.
All because I ignored my fears, listened to my heart, and developed my passion in service of others.
The journey wasn’t all pleasant — there was a lot of work involved.
I’ve had countless challenges and frustrations. I had to pay off those pointless student loans from business school. I constantly had to deal with my lingering fears and insecurities.
And it was all worth it.
It is far better to struggle and grow from the things you love — instead of succeeding at all of the practical things you hate.
So the next time you find yourself wondering:
“What should I do with my life?”
Well — what is your intuition telling you?
Listen to that.
Fear will always be a part of the journey — but so will our hearts.
Which one are you going to listen to?
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