\u00a0<\/p>\n
When I left my job as a high school English and speech teacher after five years in the classroom, I was barraged with questions. These were not the questions of encouraging creative thinkers, but ran more along the line of, \u201cHow can you throw away your education?\u201d \u201cHow can you throw away your security?\u201d \u201cHow can you give up your benefits?\u201d (For the record: when I left teaching I closed my teacher\u2019s retirement account and bought my first colored television. There was no money left over.)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Quitting a job is an invitation for the dreambashers to speak up, but they\u2019re considerably louder when what you\u2019re leaving isn\u2019t merely a job, but a career that you\u2019ve invested time and money to train for.\u00a0<\/p>\n
One of the most poignant calls I\u2019ve ever received came from a young man who had read Making a Living Without a Job.<\/em><\/strong> He introduced himself by saying he was a pre-med student and was purposely flunking out of medical school. Before he went farther with his story, I said, \u201cI think you\u2019re courageous.\u201d I was pretty sure nobody else had told him that. He went on to say his family had disowned him and no one was speaking to him. He said my book had been very helpful in getting him past all the anger.<\/p>\n \u201cDo you know what you love?\u201d I asked. He didn\u2019t hesitate for a moment. \u201cFrance,\u201d he said. He sounded wistful.<\/p>\n \u201cDo you speak French?\u201d Of course, he did and said that was why he was calling me. He had an idea about starting a business to do medical translations. Did I think it was valid?<\/p>\n \u201cOnly if you want to be forced to take regular trips to France and make a lot of money,\u201d I replied.\u00a0<\/p>\n I have no idea if he followed his dream, but I hope so. I thought of him again when I was teaching What Would an Entrepreneur Do? <\/em>in Madison last month. One of the participants was a man whose name I knew because he was a subscriber to Winning Ways<\/em>. I didn\u2019t know his story, however.<\/p>\n During the course of the seminar, he told us that he had left his medical practice as a pediatric ophthalmologist. \u201cIt was fun at the beginning,\u201d he explained, \u201cbut once I had mastered various procedures, it lost its charm.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n What I found fascinating about his story was the fact that when he left medicine he was working in a large clinic. When news got out about his changing direction, he received numerous e-mails from fellow doctors who obviously envied his courage, courage which they lacked.\u00a0<\/p>\n The fact that we\u2019ve invested time and money in a dream we then outgrew is not reason enough to stick with it. I know that’s not a popular notion, but it’s one that needs to be challenged. When it comes to matters of the heart, we not only need to follow the promptings of our own: we need to encourage others to do the same. There\u2019s simply no possibility of creating a world that works for everyone if we refuse.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0<\/p>\n I am currently reading and loving Hugh McLeod\u2019s cheeky Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity<\/em><\/strong>. Here\u2019s a tiny sampling: \u201cThe more you practice your craft, the less you confuse worldly rewards with spiritual rewards, and vice versa. Even if your path never makes any money or furthers your career, that\u2019s still worth a ton.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 When I left my job as a high school English and speech teacher after five years in the classroom, I was barraged with questions. These were not the questions of encouraging creative thinkers, but ran more along the line of, \u201cHow can you throw away your education?\u201d \u201cHow can you throw away your security?\u201d…<\/p>\n