OXLAEYQuit the Ride and Back to Work?
Sweden’s 2013 summer was long and cool. The roads smooth and traffic light. I rode grateful for the sunshine. Only once or twice did it rain on me during my entire trip. My chosen path was a straight direction up Sweden’s innards.
Cycling every day for days and days gives a person loads of time to think. I let the questions swirl around in my mind. Who am I at my core? What makes me really happy in life? What kind of work do I want to pursue in the future?
This question was pushed to the forefront only two weeks after I started my ride. XYZ, a high tech company, sent me an email. They wanted to fly me in for another interview.
XYZ had been a client of ours at my old company and upon leaning that I was leaving, Mr. CTO said he was interested in hiring me. They wanted to completely redo their external affairs. At the time, I put the idea on the back burner, because I was really not interested in lobby work again. Furthermore, I was not interested in working for a large corporation again. I had done that once before and hated the layers of bureaucracy and formality. I knew myself enough to know that my skills and personality were best set into motion where I could work in an entrepnurenual framework. Most importantly of all, I wanted to work for and with sincere, honest people and for goals which had a positive effect on those around me. I was by now in touch with myself enough to know that money didn’t bring me any fulfillment. People did.
Work and academics had always come easy to me. Fresh out of college, I got the first job I ever applied for. When I quit that one, just weeks later I was offered another, higher paying position. I felt rock-solid in me when it came to “work”. The invitation was nevertheless a great compliment. But “work” wasn’t the Baustelle I was trying to fix.
I focused on pushing my puny, pedaling legs, and reflected more on a vision for my life in the future.
