"Doing Things at Which You Are Great"
Even way back in 1841, people found themselves doing things for which they weren’t suited. Plus, inspiration from Magnus Walker's unconventional life.
Be yourself; no base imitator of another, but your best self. There is something which you can do better than another. Listen to the inward voice and bravely obey that. Do the things at which you are great, not what you were never made for.
Any guesses on who wrote this? Ralph. Ralph wrote it. And by Ralph, I am referring to Ralph Waldo Emerson. This gem appeared in his essay “Self-Reliance,” published in 1841. Apparently, even way back then, people found themselves doing things for which they weren’t suited.
In 2024, people typically don’t cite “I wanted to be more myself” as their reason for leaving a job. But also, no one is usually asking. Corporate/HR checkboxes don’t do a great job capturing the depth and range of human experience and longing.
Nothing depletes a soul faster than pretending.
Rather than leaving to “be more themselves,” it’s possible that seekers simply want less pretending and more truth-telling. Nothing depletes a soul faster than pretending. It was for this reason I started occupying my hands during company meanings so I couldn’t clap on command. If it was something I really wanted to celebrate, I’d find a way to clap, but on command? Naw.
If you feel confined in a job and feel like you’re meant to be doing something else—to be really living, to be using and developing your talents in other ways—maybe you are.
In the past two years since I left corporate to “bravely obey the inward voice,” I’ve published my first book and wrote two drafts of my next book, Dear Fellow Dreamer. Then I embarked on an existential crisis of what is this book even supposed to be and who am I to write it and who’s going to read it? It’s been fun.
Somewhere in all the travel and writing of the past couple years, I came across this TEDx video of Magnus Walker sharing his unconventional life. He has to be the most nonchalant dreamer I’ve seen on video; the antithesis of “corporate.” His speech is unpolished and real, unlike so many speakers parodied here. And it seems like he’s done work which has suited him, and been the exact opposite of a “base imitator of another.” Methinks Emerson would approve.
28 years ago, Magnus came to the “land of opportunity” from England. And in those years he’s done three main things:
Built a successful clothing company
Built a film location business
Collected, restored, raced, and driven classic Porsches.
What he shares about his journey:
All three of those things have a common thread, a common bond. And that common bond for me, really, was freedom. Freedom to do whatever I wanted to do. To dream sort of, to live my life to the fullest and do whatever I wanted to do. (Timestamp around 1:16)
The origin story of his clothing company is a treat, and includes buying $9.99 pants and selling them for $25. About the film location business he and his wife accidentally built, he says:
We were building our dream live-work house where we lived upstairs and operated our clothing company out of downstairs. So we’d accidentally fallen into a somewhat lucrative business. This is LA. It’s a movie town. We’ve met quite a lot of interesting people. They always say, “How’d you get here?” We tell them, “We followed our gut feeling.” (Timestamp around 10:46)
Things happened randomly, little by little. His love of Porsche cars led to opportunities he could not have made happen had he even known they were possibilities. And by opportunities, I mean, he’s been able to do some pretty cool and seemingly lucrative things with his Porsche passion. But at no point did he and his late wife, Karen, seem to be chasing anyone else’s definition of success. Maybe that’s why got to do “what he wanted to do.”
“If there’s one message I can leave you with, for me, what I’ve done over the past 28 years involves a lot of leaps of faith, always going on my gut feeling, when things sorta seemed awkward, that was often the case to say ‘Hey, we’re on the right track here’ and just stay motivated, stay dedicated, we never asked anyone’s opinion. We just did what we like to do and it sorta seems to have worked out quite nice for us. Now, we don’t know where we’re going, I often say ‘I’m on this open road along for the ride so we’ll see what comes next.’” (Timestamp around 18:25)
Take-aways for dreamers:
Do interesting things, not because anyone else thinks they are, but because you do.
Don’t expect your job to fulfill you in ways only self/soul-directed exploration can.
Get interested in life and not status.
Talk with and meet lots of people.
What was one of your takeaways from this article or Magnus’ story? Would love to know; please share in comments below.
Articles coming up:
A look at making the most of your corporate season.
Why employees and employers win if employees are financially able to push back.
People I’ve met who’ve really enjoyed their businesses/jobs, and why.
I write stories and stuff for those who crave more autonomy and creativity. This means lessening your financial dependence on an unfulfilling job, and creating your own vision for a meaningful life instead of defaulting to someone else’s. If this sounds like you, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber to More to Your Life.
Emily
*If you’re new here, you may not know that, embarrassingly, McDonald’s makes my favorite cheeseburger.
Um, I just watched his TED talk and this guy is super cool! Imagine if we all just felt like we had the freedom to do whatever sounded interesting, trusting that it would all work out.