Picking back up where I left off yesterday with part 3 of my interview with writer, creator and Pathless Pather, Paul Millerd:

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Tom: How do you balance ambition with contentment?  Can the two coexist, or is one always in conflict with the other?

Paul: I think they are very aligned for me. I am only ambitious to live our version of ambition as a family. It’s very personal and not aligned with what others see as ambitious. And so when I’m pursuing that, I am content.

I only feel discontent now when I feel I’m moving away from our family and life values and/or I'm doing things I’d rather not do. In my twenties, I was obsessed with the next achievement but I genuinely don’t really have that pull anymore. It’s just not interesting to me at all.

Tom:  In a world which values professional standing, credentials and titles, how do you personally evaluate someone’s wisdom or expertise?

Paul: Usually their ability to handle competing ideas or push deeper into an idea with nuance. This, however, is incredibly rare. Including “experts” in the corporate world (part of why I lost enthusiasm in my career).

Tom: What does success mean to you?

Paul: It’s whether my family and I are able to live the life that we want to be living.

Simple but hard!

Tom: Your new book is called Good Work.  How do you define “Good Work” and how does it differ from the kind of work most people do?

Paul: Good Work is a reframe from thinking about work as this thing that happens to us or we have to do and instead as something that we connect with on a deeper level. It’s saying that there is work that matters to almost everyone and prioritizing that, even if it doesn’t “make sense”, is an important thing for most people to do to be happy in their lives. I don’t think most people see work like this at all.

Tom: Where can readers go if they want to dive deeper into the world of Paul Millerd, The Pathless Path and Good Work?

Paul: Read my books. Listen to my podcast. Do experiments and share in your own life too!

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That wraps up the 3 part interview.

But before this email heads off into the sunset, there’s a treat in store if you want to dive deeper into Paul’s perspectives. 

That treat?

I asked Paul if he’d be up for gifting a few copies of his new book, Good Work, to readers of this daily newsletter.

And, being the kind of guy that Paul is, he very generously said yes.

I had thought about creating some sort of puzzle and giving copies of Good Work to the winners of that puzzle.

But then I figured that asking people to jump through hoops on a pathless path is a bit of a mismatch.

After all, pathless paths don't usually come with obstacle courses.

So instead, this is what I’m doing:

Paul has given me the okay to gift 5 copies of Good Work, totally free and no strings attached.

And I’m doing this the old school way – first come, first serve.

If you’d like to grab a copy of Good Work, hit reply to this email.

In your reply, simply say “Good Work”.

If you’re one of the first five people to reply, I’ll send a pdf copy of the book straight over.