Note: Today’s post is a guest contribution from Farnoosh Brock.


I met Jacob in Portland, during what I have dubbed as my pilgrimage to the lovely city along with 500 unconventional amazing people. Jacob was not too happy with me because I missed meeting him in his city, New York City, the prior week during Blogworld – never mind that he did not come to my session.


Since he is as dear as a kid brother now, with a heart of gold that I would have never known had I not met him, I am trying hard to make it up to him so this is the topic for a guest post he requested and I could not say no to him even if I tried.

 

Why did I leave my 6-figure lucrative income, super easy work-from-home job at a Fortune 500 company, without a plan and without a replacement, to pursue the deepest desires of my heart? Well, that last part should be sufficient reason for you to give up just about anything in life but I did not know that back when I was young and stupid and you – if you have never given up things to follow the calling of your heart – may not think it possible or practical at all.

 

So an explanation, I shall provide.

 

Just so you know that I am of a complete sound mind, these reasons are brought to you from a fiscally conservative, practical, ambitious, highly-educated girl with double degrees in electrical engineering and countless other techie certifications.

 

Sometimes, however, other things get in the way of your plans and you have to go out to that dreaded but awesome edge, look down at the vastness below, take a deep breath, and decide whether you are going to live out the rest of your life according to convention or listen to the faint suffocating voice from your soul. You have to decide if you are going to stand behind or if you are going to jump.

 

 

I jumped. Here is why:

 

1 My job didn’t make my heart sing.

It actually never did but as I got older, this little thing started to matter big time.

 

2 It was all so meaningless.

After months and years of working on projects, in retrospect, it all seems ever so meaningless. None of it mattered in the grand scheme of anything! They were stupid means to no useful end. Nothing of value to be found. Nothing to be proud of. Nothing to call my own. My work was meaningless and my career was a bad joke.

 

3 I stopped being challenged.

Never mind that the area of challenge initially did not make my heart sing, but the challenge itself disappeared altogether. Poof! It was gone! Everywhere I looked, every job I took in every organization, things were menial and my talents and skills were never, ever put to test. Seriously, I would think, can someone please give me a freaking challenge? I am smart and I spent a hundred years training and getting certifications and all.

 

4 The irrelevance really became annoying.

None of the projects had relevance to my educational background, to my interests in improving technology in the name of something good, and to any other personal goal. The company mission and my life mission were diverging fast and furiously.

 

 

5My work did not align to my core values,

such as honesty, transparency, innovation, high principles, creativity, meritocracy and work ethics. When your goals get all misaligned with your core values, bad stuff happens to you on the inside.

 

6The hypocrisy.

Oh the hypocrisy of it all. Do as we say, not as we do, attitude. Nearly suffocated me daily.

 

7They killed the culture.

They murdered it. They hung it and let it fester in the sun [sorry, was that too graphic?]. Basically, once upon a time, we had a nice little culture and even if we were at the time all grossly underpaid and terribly overworked, we loved and identified with the company culture. One day, they screwed it all up and then we had no culture. The bitter end.

 

8 Un-leadership

– that is Scott Stratten speak for absence of leadership – geared its ugly little head. There was no real leadership among the senior leadership of the company. Talk about a monstrous irony. Amidst all the fancy titles and ludicrously well-paid executives, real leadership to move and shake the company with innovation and originality was a thing of dreams. The kind of leadership that gets rid of problems with real solutions became a novel idea and then disappeared altogether. Not pretty.

 


 

You get one chance to do what you love.

 

Well, I was going to stick to just 8 reasons for now, 8 being such a lucky number in Indian philosophy and all. Rest assured, these are not all the reasons I left it all behind but the main ones that propelled me to do something meaningful with my life while I still have a life.

 

In the end, I repeat what you have probably heard ad nauseam but well, maybe you can stand to hear it again:

 

You live once. You get one chance to do what you love. You get one life to be true to yourself and to protect your soul from perishing in the well of unhappiness and I highly, highly recommend that you grab that chance, hold on to it with the grip of death and never, ever let go.

 

Break free if you are unhappy. Live free. And then when all that is in place, go make a killing at what you love.


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Today’s guest post was courtesy of the fantastic Farnoosh Brock from ProlificLiving.com. In her own word, she has “an obsessive passion around smart habits for rich living and a tireless intent in sharing it.” In my own words, i love the way this lady laughs! Farnoosh emanates with the warmth of a fireplace and the passion of a prolific-liver.

The little lady packs a powerful punch and i’m honored to have developed a bond with this beautiful soul. She’s the type of person who goes to a conference and aspires to meet every, single, person – yup, all 500 of em! Say hi to her, and tell her i sent ya! -=)

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Photo Credits: 123 – 4 – Thank you!!

 

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