CW Room

At first, I wanted so desperately to find a 9-5, fancy office job with glass windows and a business formal attire required dress code. I don’t know what I was thinking…

That’s not entirely true, I do! What I was thinking was that I wanted to be successful. I wanted to fit the mould of what a successful person was. Especially as someone who went to business school, the narrative was always that a successful person was the manager, CEO or owner of a multi-million business with a large number of employees and even more money.

Picture this person in your mind’s eye. What do they look like?

Firstly, they’re probably a man, but that’s not the point. They’re probably dressed in some form of suit, hair shiny and well taken care of, they’re likely elegantly accessorised with shoes that look like they’ve only ever been worn indoors and only ever recently.

The kicker is that someone with any of the above job titles – those being Manager, CEO, Owner – is definitely not working a 9-5 job. This person’s probably always working. Always on the clock managing everybody, putting out fires and, perhaps more importantly, growing the business.

What I don’t understand is why this is the only image of success we are taught. Because, yes, successful people have motivation and drive; However, they would never have started working hard and become successful all of the sudden. It takes a while.

Those in leadership positions who are society’s perception of success maintain this work ethic from the beginning right to the end. I mean to say that people in managerial, CEO and ownership positions are more likely to have started their company with the non-stop, go-go-go mindset that they carried to their current positions.

Possessing that mindset is what makes you successful and not the other way around. With that mindset, you get the motivation and drive you need to be successful. The thing about drive, when it’s real, is that it doesn’t stop at your task.

Drive keeps going, turning your tasks into ideas, ideas into concepts and concepts into opportunities.

Once you’ve got an opportunity close to your heart and enough drive to make it come true, you’re unstoppable. Therein lies the ground floor of success.

Once you start working an idea that you’re passionate about and are driven to bring to life, you’re well on your way to becoming your version of this person in the successful clothing that you imagined earlier.

You don’t have to work at a fancy office with glass windows on the top floor of a skyscraper to be successful. In fact, it’s probably better that you don’t! Stepping out of the box and uncovering what your natural potential is will drive you to success just as well.

Mind you, there are those who would rather work a 9-5 job. Quite frankly, I don’t see why not! The most important take away from this is to do whatever you are naturally inclined to do. Doing that is probably how CEOs and owners in particular probably would’ve started.

So, if you’re someone who feels inclined to work an office job, then darn it be proud of yourself! That’s your skill. Not everyone can do what you do.

If you have a business idea that you’re passionate about but aren’t sure would gain traction, then just remember that the first people who made paperclips or even phone covers were probably thinking the same thing.

If you have an idea that you feel might already exist in the market, then just remember that almost everyone has a body, and yet OnlyFans is still a thing. Same goes for coffee shops, fried chicken restaurants and pretty much anything sold on Alibaba or Amazon. You can do it!

If you’ve got a skill that you feel you may not be qualified to capitalise on, remember that back in the day before the capitalisation of the world, before technology or industrialisation, people stood in markets and sold their homemade goods to make a living.

People offered their services as blacksmiths, bodyguards, assassins, painters, strategists, even pimping was a personally honed skill. In fact, conning was a skill that people used to make ends meet – though I would highly recommend against!

You can, and should do whatever you want to do. Worrying less about the money and more about the self-preservation. Your individuality, your ideas and your input are what will make you successful.

There is more money in the world than you think.

Moral of the story is that 9-5s and your genre of attire are not what make you successful, but your drive and ability to stay true to yourself. That’s how almost all famous people you’ve heard about made it. That’s how happy people are made and that’s what I had to learn in my life to figure out what I wanted to do with it. I wanted to stay true to myself.

Thanks for reading 🙂