The 4-Hour Workweek sparked the first relevant step in this journey.
Prior to my encounter with the novel, I worked as a fixed-income trader at a financial institution. Don’t get me wrong - the job had its fair share of positives. After graduating college I was given a position of great responsibility, earned a dream salary, and had the opportunity to work with some brilliant people along the way. The perks offered an attractive bragging platform. There were fancy dinners, sports tickets, and generally a lot of opportunities the average 22 year old is not presented with.
Somewhere along the way the novelty wore off. The appeal to materialism had only lasted so long. I could not identify with the job or the numbers I was crunching each day. The trading attitude permeated my life and was, in fact, becoming my life. Analyzing and making markets on daily minutia seriously hindered my capacity for appreciation. Today when I encounter old associates and hear them buy or sell an estimate of what a dinner bill will be, I cringe. Now I know what others probably thought of me along the way!
And so the seed of discontent was planted. I started reading literature again and longed to be Edmond Dantes from The Count of Monte Cristo. I returned to the gym in earnest and focused on a passion for physical fitness. My identity slowly resurrected itself.
Then The 4-Hour Workweek inspired action. First through my fitness kick, I found Tim Ferriss’s (the author’s) blog through an article on building muscle mass (http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/category/the-4-hour-body/). Conveniently it was Week 1 of his new book’s release. I picked it up, blazed through it, and loved it. Its core message offered an actionable alternative to the 60 hour week and the corporate world, a breath of fresh air for the stressed masses. I contacted Tim on a whim and even he had this to say: ”The fixed-income life (in more ways than one) is brutal. Don’t let yourself get trapped in their thinking.” The book’s worst-case scenario exercise was gold - it helped me realize that no, the world would not end if I deviated from my career path and left my job.
When I did leave my job just two weeks later, true to the book’s word, the world did not end. Although I had a fair share of critics and doubters for leaving a sure thing, I was confident my choice was sound. A significant theme of the advice I sought was to ‘give it time’, advice that had I followed, may have caused me to lose the spirit of change. Instead I challenged myself, made a significant decision, and acted on it - for that I am proud.
