...Tupperware; and Spoons for Drumsticks...
Do you remember being at School and being given "Careers Advice" by a uninterested middle aged underachiever...?
I do, I was told I had two choices; either go down the Pit or join the Army.
Both looked like sensible options until I had the "dream" that I should really aspire to achieve explained to me. Apparently I should get qualified, find a job (packaged as a "career" to make it sound attractive...) take out a huge loan to buy a house, save any spare cash into a pension - then retire and die 50 years later.
I can remember playing drums on my Mum's Tupperware using spoons for drumsticks and thinking that a normal career would not suit me very well...
But I was told that I would never make any money as a Drummer, and that in order to get a "good job" I should concentrate on getting qualifications and a trade that "no-one could take off me..."
Oh yes and get married and have 2.4 children in the process...
Live the Dream...
We have all been sold the same dream. Generation Y and Millennial's have it even worse now than us Generation X's did...
Now you have to have a degree to flip a burger, if you want any job that involves a desk then you need a Masters - there are more people in low level admin jobs with MBA's than there are in the Boardroom; academic inflation is the curse of the young...
I see people in jobs they don't like, but because it pays well and supports the Mortgage (translated as; contract until death..) they put up with the politics, boredom, and routine that eventually defines them.
One of my friends has been in the same job since she left school - she is 43 now and has been there for 25 years. The company has been sold and she is being made redundant; her world has fallen apart because the dream she was sold was not true.
What to Do...
I thank that career advisor every day, she was the one that put fear and loathing into my mind as a teenager. She empowered me to do things differently; it didn't feel like it at the time but her advice was the best I was ever given, she showed me what I didn't want and forced me to explore what I did...
Simply put - you have to let go...
Let go of the house, the car the salary and the status - it is the scariest thing in the world and also the most rewarding. Choose you dream and live it, stop waiting for the "right time" or the best opportunity, or the redundancy cheque or when the kids grow up.
There is a CEO in the UK who meets with me occasionally. He tells me that he is very entrepreneurial and has the right skills and attitude to be a Business Owner.
Last time we met, he pulled up in his silver Audi A6, wearing his Hugo Boss suit, silk tie and Rolex watch. I rolled up on my motorbike in leathers with full face helmet, Kevlar jeans and boots...
Over lunch he told me all about how great he was, and how unhappy it was making him. He told me that when the "time was right" he was going to resign and go out on his own, he just needed a bit more money and time to plan..
He asked my advice - I said leave the car here, text your resignation, go home and get on with it...To him this was most amusing, but I was serious; he clearly was not...
Three times in my "career" I have sold or left everything and started a new venture. Including moving abroad twice and changing career numerous times...
He is drowning in his Career, his material acquisitions and financial instruments are dragging him down - he needs to let go, but he can't. The FEAR of loss is greater than his need for FREEDOM...
The only instrument I need is a Drum Kit, and the only FEAR I have is that we dont move fast enough...
I am still married to Lynn, the girl I met at High School, we have two amaznig sons and our lives continue to rock. So remember, don't let go of everything, just the things that are holding you down...
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