Caught Between Your Dream and Your Job

This title is inspired by a book I read last year – ‘Caught Between A Job And A Dream by Delatoro McNeal’, a writer and motivational speaker I admire. According to a survey done in the US on job satisfaction prior to the release of the book, more than 87% of Americans hate their jobs. I have wondered for a while what the figure for Nigeria would be. I guess it would fall on the wrong side of 90%, with folks more focused on survival issues (rent, food, school fees, etc) rather than passion.

Sadly, most people think you cannot have both – do what you love, love what you do, and become rich in the process. Most are trapped between their dreams and their job. They hate their jobs but have no choice but to wake up before sun up, commute to work, and get back home at sundown, often after the kids have gone to bed. We hate it but feel powerless because we cannot figure out a way out. We feel trapped and resentful, serving a jail term with the earliest release on our 60th birthday, that is if the market has not wiped out our retirement savings. Every day looks the same with no end in sight. Friday, public holidays and vacations are a welcome temporary interlude in a long drawn-out prison sentence.

The saddest aspect of this sorry saga is that most have given up on their God-given dreams and resigned to a life of servitude followed by an uncertain pension in an ever-changing world.

The biggest obstacle to our release from prison is our mindset. If you believe you have run out of options, then you have. If you believe you cannot do what you love, love what you do, and make money, you are correct. If you believe you cannot grow your hobby into a business, you are right. If you believe you cannot start from where you are and ride on the principle of gradual growth to something big, you are absolutely spot on.

I am addressing people who believe they can. People who despise not, the days of small beginnings. We are trapped between our jobs and our dreams because of our belief system. This is the single biggest obstacle to our escape from jail and achieving our goals and dreams. You cannot start a journey you are certain will end in failure; why bother

Barak Obama started on the journey to the American presidency because he was audacious enough to believe he can. Pull aside any mega-corporation and trace its history. You are certain to see two things

a) They started small
b) Somebody believed

Run for dear life anytime you see rookies start big. A crash is surely coming to a cinema near you. If you start with a bang, you crash with a bang, in full view of the public, and such wrecks are everywhere, if you think of start-ups that made a lot of noise, with flashy offices, cars, etc, and have since disappeared from the landscape, taking its place among the stats as one of the 9 in 10 that did not make it.

Most people are frozen stiff by fear of making a move because they belong to the school of thought of starting with a bang. Their national anthem is “I have no capital”. If you can condescend to start small in your spare time (instead of watching endless aimless TV programs), start from your bedroom with your savings, scale your start-up down to your present circumstances, and take it one step at a time, one day at a time.

Mighty oaks from little acorn grow. Starting small is not rocket science. All it takes is the courage to take a baby step. Anybody can do it. It is a step I took some years ago, and nothing beats the feeling of seeing a hobby grow into a business with employees, paying tax to the government.

The prison warden making sure we don’t attempt a jailbreak from our jobs to our dreams is our mindset.

I will end with something I observed while growing up in the countryside. Our family, like many others, maintained free-range poultry, chicken roaming free. It provided eggs and chicken for Christmas and Easter. Once in a while, my Mum bought new fowl (adolescent-sized chicken) from the village market to boost our stock. Since this fowl is a new kid on the block, it can easily walk away never to be seen again.

To program to become familiar with its new environment (so as to come home every evening), the fowl is tied with a 2-meter rope to a tree in the front yard for some days. Naturally, the fowl will strain, trying to break free. After some days, it comes to the realization that it cannot wander more than 2 meters from the tree. During this time, it does not need to look for food and water. It is well fed, to the envy of its free cousins.

A week later, when we believe the fowl has studied its surroundings enough to find its way home unaided, it is released from prison to roam free. This is when something interesting happens.

After the setting free ceremony, the fowl refuses to move one inch. We, kids, will try to assist by making sounds to drive away the fowl to discover its newfound freedom. The fowl refuses to move, thinking its leg is still shackled. If it moves a bit, it keeps coming back to the 2-meter circle. It takes quite a while before it dawns on the fowl that it is now released to roam free.

The interesting phenomenon is that after its physical release, the fowl is still in a mental prison. It refuses to budge beyond the 2-meter virtual prison perimeter fencing. The same happens to us, humans. Although our right to start a business and prosper is guaranteed by the Constitution, we remain bound mentally because the reality of making money outside of our salaries is alien to us and hence impossible. The idea of designing our lives, rather than depending on our employer to determine which town we live in, when we can see our families, and when we can keep personal appointments seems unreal.

If you are caught between your dream and your job, the jailer is not your employer, it is your mindset. Set yourself free.