Your Next 40,000 Hours

Falling Into an Illuminating Second Career

Elaine Siu

• Publisher: New Degree Press
• Year: 2021
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781637304006
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Business Ethics

CHAPTER 1

THE RABBIT HOLE OF FINDING PURPOSE

“He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how.”

–Nietzsche

It was at age twenty-six I started feeling that utter nothingness about life.

I looked fine on the outside. To be fair, I looked more than fine to others. I worked at a global law firm, my clients were listed companies and investment banks, and my boyfriend was in private equity. I was on a clear trajectory of the standard lifestyle supported by a high income and a respectable profession. I had just purchased my first investment property. I regularly recharged myself from my ninety-hour workweeks through amazing getaways whenever I got a week or two off between deals: sunset in Santorini, wandering in the Old Medina in Casablanca, architecture walks to appreciate Gaudi’s genius in Barcelona, and my next destination, Iceland.

I couldn’t afford to fly business class on holidays yet, but all things considered, life was good. Or at least I should have felt it was good.

I couldn’t figure out why I developed profound disinterest about everything that should have gotten me excited. I was obsessed with success, and I had worked very hard to position myself on the right path. I should have been quite pleased with myself. Instead, I was numb.

I didn’t care. Don’t get me wrong, I cared a lot about executing my job with excellence and being applauded by how great I was at what I did. But as for what I was actually helping to create in the world? Sure, we got this company listed and raised millions of dollars, and that company acquired for millions of dollars. Big deal (pun intended). I didn’t care. Work is work. I found money and status in it, not meaning. Surely that’s okay, and that’s how people live.

A friend floated the idea of depression as a possible explanation. I dismissed it, as I thought depression should be about crying and being sad all day long. How ignorant I was. My life primarily revolved around work, and that’s the case for most of us if we spend anywhere from eight to twelve hours a day working. I told myself that one day, if I couldn’t get myself out of bed to go to work, that would be the day I’d deem this “condition” as prohibitive to my “normal functioning” and I’d seek help.

Surprise, surprise, soon enough I struggled to pull myself out of bed. I was not sad. I was numb, emotionally, and it was finally affecting me physically. That day, I exhausted all my willpower to fight against my lifeless limbs. I couldn’t get to work. Damn it, so now I really have to deal with this, I thought. I was quite certain the psychiatrist would give me a different diagnosis because I looked way too good on the outside to be depressed.

“This is a classic case of depression,” said Dr. Whoever.

“What?” I gasped. “So what do we do now? How long will it take to fix me?” Because, naturally, I had more important and urgent things to attend to.

As it turned out, Dr. Whoever wasn’t able to fix me. Depression became the teacher in my life that pushed me toward a more fulfilling path.

The Tease of Life Purpose

Just to be clear, this book is not about depression. Whatever clinical term or categorization used, depression does not manifest identically across different individuals.

Let’s expand our vocabulary here. You don’t need to be labelled as “depressed” to want to find your life’s purpose. My theory (and experience) is that you are likely to suffer some form of emotional or psychological distress if you keep denying your natural instinct to find and live your purpose. The onset of that internal struggle can happen very differently for each individual, including how long it takes for that itch to turn into a powerful urge and finally a must-do-something-about-it calling.

To me, the significance of depression is that it prompted me to find my purpose in life.

“But I simply don’t know what my ‘purpose’ is!” you may say. Most of us don’t. The burden of finding that purpose in itself can be very distressing. Furthermore, creating a career aligned with a life purpose unbeknown to you is even more daunting. How do you do it?

It has to be said at the outset that there is no universal formula for finding your purpose. In the beginning of my journey into this rabbit hole, the articles I read, the aptitude tests I did, and the workshops and trainings I completed all seemed to be some derivative of the Hedgehog Concept.

The Hedgehog Concept was developed by Jim Collins in his book Good to Great (2001). In Collins’s own words, the Hedgehog Concept is “a simple, crystalline concept that flows from deep understanding about the intersection of three circles”:

Circle 1. What are you deeply passionate about?

Circle 2. What can you be the best in the world at?

Circle 3. What drives your economic engine?

Collins named it the Hedgehog Concept based upon an ancient Greek parable that “the fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.” It’s important to note, though, that Collins was primarily writing this in the context of business. The idea guides a company to understand which “one big thing” it should be doing.

But wait, doesn’t that sound familiar? Think back to how your career guidance counselor helped you figure out what to major in at university. There were three very similar questions: what are you interested in, what are you good at, and well, let’s be practical, what can land you a paying job? It’s the same trio of passion, competence, and money.

We all intrinsically know this magic trio and have been applying it in every decision we make with regards to the question “What should I do with my life?” albeit with different levels of success. Over time, most of us compromise or neglect our passion in exchange for a job we are reasonably good at and for which we get reasonably paid.

Collins says, “When all the pieces come together not only does your work move toward greatness but so does your life. For, in the end, it is impossible to have a great life unless it is a meaningful life. And it is very difficult to have a meaningful life wit...

Table of contents

• INTRODUCTION
• CHAPTER 1: THE RABBIT HOLE OF FINDING PURPOSE
• CHAPTER 2: BEEP, SNOOZE...BANG!
• CHAPTER 3: THE COURAGE TO QUIT
• CHAPTER 4: IN PURSUIT OF HIPPINESS
• CHAPTER 5: THE MANY FACETS OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP
• CHAPTER 6: DOING GOOD AS A CAREER
• CHAPTER 7: THE DREAM GIG
• CHAPTER 8: FALLING DEEPER TO RISE ABOVE
• CHAPTER 9: BEYOND RIGHT AND WRONG
• CHAPTER 10: THE ALCHEMY
• ILLUMINATE
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• APPENDIX