Less than 10 years after college, Jeff Bezos found himself at a career crossroads. Stay in the business world, and play things safe at a high-paying job with a hedge fund, or go for it all. Going for it all meant pursuing his dream of starting an online bookstore. An online bookstore?! He was laughed under the table by his friends and family.
Bezos decided to pursue his dream, and the rest is history.
Amazon is what it is today because Jeff Bezos was willing to ask himself this very important question:
Is this life what I really want?
Who could have blamed him for going after a demanding career, but one that would be a “sure thing” for someone of his intelligence? No one. But he knew deep down that it wasn’t what he really wanted. He wanted his dream. He wanted the big prize. Better to aim high.
We find in life that we can play things safe, or we can bet on ourselves and give it a shot, even when we don’t have a safety net. There’s nothing worse than doing something wrong, not enjoying yourself while doing it, but hanging on because you think it’s “the right thing to do.”
I know. This one sentence, at times, came to define a lot of my professional life. Maybe you’re going through the same thing now, or perhaps you’ve survived the storm.
Source: Medium
