My biggest career move was quitting
- Richard
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
Just before I quit my job two years ago, I sometimes lay awake at night wondering: Who will I be without a title on my business card? Without responsibility, without prestige, without a purpose? What will be left of me if I no longer contribute in a visible and measurable way? You have to contribute something to society.
Until I came across another ancient image from the Tao Te Ching: the image of water.
Water that doesn't push
Water doesn't fight. It doesn't try to be anything. It seeks the lowest point, flows around obstacles, and gives life to everything it touches. And in the meantime, it transforms landscapes. Without pushing. Gently. And yet stronger than stone. Last week, we stood by a small river in Northern Italy. Ice-cold water that has been carving its way through the landscape for centuries. No hurry. No strategy. Just constant movement. The stone always loses in the end. What if meaning isn't in pushing, but in flowing?
Life lives itself
When I left my position, I felt for a moment as if I'd lost my purpose. As if meaning were something you had to create. But as you read these words, millions of things are happening inside you without your doing anything. Your heart is beating. Your lungs are breathing. Your blood is flowing. Life is living itself, right through you.
Arthur Schopenhauer
In "The World as Will and Representation," the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer described how everything is driven by a single underlying force. He called it The Will. Not your personal ambition. Not your plans. But a primal current. The will to live, a life force that precedes thought. The tree grows. The dog runs. The child plays.
The tree is booming. The dog is dog. The child is child. What if I just live this life instead of having to do everything?
To share
Since we've been living and traveling with Globus 2 , nothing feels forced anymore, and yet everything falls into place. We drive, we get lost, we meet, we look, and we share. In our blogs and videos, we share our doubts, our joys, the good and the bad moments. Not because we've devised a strategy for how we're going to change the world or what we want to achieve, but because it flows.
To inspire
We notice that people are touched. That someone, after reading a blog, finally decides to make that journey. That someone writes that our words help them make a difficult choice and see things differently. Perhaps that is our life's mission right now. Nothing more, nothing less. Nothing grand. Simply sharing what wants to move through us. Like water.
“Meaning doesn’t come from pushing harder, but from following what wants to flow through you.”
Life without struggle
Schopenhauer saw clearly how desire makes us restless. Always wanting more, a higher salary, a bigger house. As if this moment isn't enough. What if, beneath that restlessness, lies a silent current? A movement that doesn't come from your head, but from something you feel rather than understand. Perhaps meaning isn't a project, but something that arises naturally when you stop pushing.
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Stop pushing
For me, leaving my job wasn't a step away from meaning, but a step closer. Closer to a way of life where sharing, writing, traveling, and inspiring aren't goals in themselves, but a natural expression of who we are now. Perhaps that will change someday. Water doesn't hold its shape either. For now, this is the flow.
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