I quit my banking job in the summer of 2021.

I was so knackered that once I’d quit, I carved out a few months to rest, recharge and play lots of online bridge.

But as the burnout lifted and I started to find my mojo, a question popped into my head which I probably should’ve seen coming:

How are you going to make a living now, Tom?

I didn’t want to go back to the merry world of ungainful employment. So I started brainstorming business ideas. And as I did, I put some serious thought into what business I could start that wouldn’t just keep the lights burning at Fort Grundy but might also light me up too.

As I brainstormed, researched and consulted with Uncle Google, once piece of advice came up over and over:

If you want to start a business you’ll enjoy, find a way to do what you loved doing as a child.

For me, that meant fiddling about with my Paul Daniels magic set, playing chess, creating mazes with old cereal boxes, reading the Beano and the Dandy, getting stuck into puzzles & brainteasers and playing some hockey & tennis too.

As you might’ve gathered, I didn’t wind up becoming a full time magician or launching a cereal box maze store on Etsy.

I ended up starting a newsletter/coaching biz instead.

I never even knew that daily emails were a “thing”. But when I discovered them, I wanted in. The whole idea of daily emails felt alive and full of energy. And to combine daily emails with my growing interest in the Subtraction Method was a match made in heaven.

Mind you, I still think there’s something to this childhood hobby idea. I think the thing that delighted us as a kid can hint at what gets buried under the usual humdrum advice of “be realistic and get a proper job”. 

However…

There’s one aspect to this advice which really isn’t helpful.

And it’s this:

You’re allowed to change your answer as you go.

In fact, you’d be mad not to.

It’s not like any of us come into the world with a pre-installed calling and our job is to dig up this calling from our childhood. To me, our interests work more like the podcast app on my iPhone. So yes, I have my favourite podcasts. But sometimes a new one comes along or an old one gets dropped. And in a similar way, the thing that grabs us at age 8 might not be the same thing that grabs us at 28 or 48 or 68. 

Which also means the thing that lights us up right now might not be the thing that lights us up tomorrow.

As I sit here typing away in my office at Chateau Grundy, I’m still as fired up about my coaching/newsletter biz as I’ve ever been. Probably even more so. I'm about to publish my new book Don’t Quit Your Job, my new product Freedom At Work is just around the corner too and my newsletter readership is at an all-time high.

But I also know that life might tug me in a different direction at some point. And if it does, that would be why I’d end the newsletter and coaching.

I’d be surprised if that happens any time soon. But then again, I’ve learnt not to be surprised by how often I’m surprised. 

Anyway, I'm not sure where else I’m going with this one.

Except to say what if our job isn’t to decide where our lives are heading but to discover where they’re heading instead?

If something feels alive for you right now as you finish this email, I’d love to know what.

If you'd like to share, hit reply and let me know.

To fulfilment,

Tom