Had started to read ‘the lonely planet story’ just two days ago. Well, if you have not come across it, it’s about how Tony and Maureen Wheeler, the founders of the lonely planet travel guides, caught the travel bug and eventually built a highly successful travel publishing business. Found the book at the library and now I am engrossed with their tale. It’s a common theme that appears quite often in self-authored books nowadays, about people pursuing their passion and making money at the same time (yeah, they’ll make even more money when people like you and me start buying their books).
Sounds familiar? With all the hype on entrepreneurship, coupled with the rise of the Multi-level Marketing companies, and with more people succumbing to quarter-life crisis, this idea about leaving the familiar road for ‘the road less travelled’ isn’t too far away from most people. That includes me I guess.
When you reach the fork in the road, it’s tempting to just head into the unbeaten path, with all its possibilities and alluring mysteries. But many practical people have learn to block that thought and trudge ahead on the old familiar road. Of course, one reason being that they have been trained to study hard, get a good job, get married, have kids, and retire. And that often comes with obligations and expectations that are set on their shoulders from the very first word they learn to read.
Then there are all these stories about people beating a hasty retreat towards the familiar path after failing to make inroads in their new endeavours. The hard part about the unfamiliar road to success is that you never know how many defeats and failures that you need to take before you’ll finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. If the ‘get out of jail’ card is just in your breast pocket, then it’s easy to just give up and move back to familiar territory.
So how come there are an increasing number of people leaving their comfort zone to become Land Bankers, Free-Lance Photographers, Food-stall owners, Health Food peddlers, and Small Business owners? Are people getting more selfish or individualistic? Are people saddled with fewer obligations, inheriting wealth instead of parents who need our support? Or is the persuasion of Napolean Hill, Dale Carnegie, and Robert Kiyosaki slowly transforming the thinking of the new generation?
But there are some lessons to be learnt from from their stories. Like Tony and Maureen who braved many discomforts, setbacks and countless times when they were almost penniless. The familiar phrase of ‘let go, and let God’ comes to mind. Having lower expectations definitely helps with a high tolerance of personal discomfort. Worry less helps too, about money, about tomorrow, about things beyond our control…
Well in Singapore, we have a government who does the worrying for us. Live too long? Just work longer, retire later, buy annuity, put more money in your CPF…. All these messages either make people work harder to hold on to their jobs or push more out into the ‘entrepreneurship wagon’ that promises financial freedom and early retirement.
What would you do when you arrive at the fork?
