CHAPTER 1
HOW I QUIT MY CORPORATE JOB
THAT LAST DAY
I woke up with a sudden realisation of what I needed to do. I knew that today would be my last day. Today would be the day that I quit my ‘dream’ job. Omar, who was staying over that morning, asked if I had anything planned for the day.
“I’ll think I’ll quit my job,” I said calmly, with a Zen like attitude.
He laughed and said, “Alright buddy, we’ll see about that”.
There was doubt in his tone that I was serious, and the socially conditioned expectation that I, a uni student wouldn’t quit my graduate role only two weeks in.
I walked to work through the city of clones and walking zombies all dressed in their suits. Black, white, grey, and the odd bit of colour from a woman who was trying to convince herself that her work allowed her to truly express herself. I was indeed walking through the rat race; the nine to five grind that had become life for so many, and had been my life for only the last two weeks.
As I rode the elevator to my client’s office and my cubicle within it, there was a sense of purpose filling my entire being. I sat down in my cubicle, pulled out my laptop and began to scribble on my note pad. No-one from my team had arrived yet.
I asked myself what I should write.
I began to transcribe the words “Today I will quit my job”.
I didn’t just write them once. I wrote these words over the entire page; in big letters and in small letters. I was determined to not let myself back out of the decision I had made earlier on during the day.
As I began to sift through my emails, I noticed one from my manager who said she wasn’t coming in today. I received an instant chat message from another team member stating a similar thing. Well this only confirms my decision to quit, I thought.
On the day that our audit report was due, our team consisted of the lead manager and me. I began my audit work promptly, scrolling up and down Excel spread sheets looking to tie one number to another number.
This work wasn’t for me.
After an hour and half of this mindless computerised version of hide and seek I glanced over at my note pad, which was covered in the words “Today I will quit my Job”.
I asked myself, “Do I have to do this now?” The answer was “Yes”.
My heart began to pound faster and faster and it became clear to me that I was fearful to do it. I had Will Smith’s advice from a motivational video on YouTube replaying in my mind “That which we fear the most is what we must do.”
I quickly wrote an email to the HR department responsible for graduates, requesting a discussion with regard to my future employment. Sending that email relieved me of a great sense of anxiety, and the building up of future regret.
My phone rang at lunchtime, and I began to explain my position.
“I would like to resign from my graduate role”.
“Yes I know I’ve only been here for two weeks.”
“Well I’m not too sure what I am going to do, but I kind of know what it is, but it’s hard to put into words.”
“It kind of involves spirituality, teaching and business.”
“Kind of like life coaching, but not life coaching”.
The conversation ended. I had done it. I was now free. I was now free to do what I was meant to do in this life. I was now jobless. I was now on my own. I was now taking the leap. I was finally listening to my True Self.
FINALLY LISTENING
The decision to leave my graduate role was not something I did on a whim. It had been brewing within me for quite some time, more than a year in fact.
By leaving my role as a graduate auditor only two weeks into the job, I was making a stand for what I truly believed in.
The belief, that to be successful and happy in this world, you need to follow your heart.
Although this sounds like a cliché, needed to follow my heart, follow my passion, follow my dreams, it was what I firmly believed.
It was a belief that I needed to remind myself was the key to a meaningful life. Although this key was once (already) known, by the time I started my internship at the same firm a year previously, it was long forgotten.
Fortunately for me it could be found and was found before it was too late. Before I would be fully committed to a life I didn’t want to live and to a life that I was not meant to live.
My journey to this realisation started 18 months before I quit my job, and like all realisations it came while watching an episode of NBC’s 30 Rock.
