Walking through a Sussex town on a summer evening, crowds hovering moth-like outside the pubs, their cigarette smoke marring my refreshing walk, something struck me.
It was something I had considered earlier that day, eating a sandwich on a bench which faced the glass front of a supermarket. During the 15 or so minutes I was there, I did a few things to pass the time. I looked around the square. I checked my phone. But the supermarket cashier through the glass drew my attention from time to time. Perhaps it was because she had just sold me a sandwich, in such an overtly polite manner it was almost obsequious, but I began to wonder how she came to be behind that counter and how she, if she was sitting on a bench watching herself work, would feel about her place in the world.
This is the point at which I begin to feel that I should justify myself. Say something like- ‘Of course being a check-out girl is a noble profession.’ But that is not the purpose of this post. The purpose of it, the thing that struck me as I walked through the hazy evening, that which I had ruminated on over my egg mayo at lunch, is to acknowledge that statistically speaking, the majority of the population cannot have a career that fully stimulates them. The overwhelming majority must inhabit the menial jobs or the manual labour. This is a fact that we have perhaps acknowledged- and rebutted with platitudes “Work isn’t everything” “Whatever pays the bills”etc. But this goes a lot further than whether or not you enjoy your job.
The fact is, most people in those clouds of cigarette smoke, slowly earning their £7.50 an hour and then casually spending it on pints and club entry fees, will never achieve their brain’s full potential. They will never push hard enough, run fast enough, swim against the current of the tide that is bills and rent and laziness to do something truly creative with their minds. This is because the world we live in is a machine that needs humans, incredible, malleable, inspired creatures that we are, to do things like serve french fries or enter data. And where there is demand for something in exchange for money, that thing will inevitably be supplied.
Careers where money is not easily given, where years of dedication and study are required before you can break even, tend to eventually offer more scope for creativity and originality. But most of us live in the short term, as long as we break even on our payments, tread water so to speak, we put our attention on other, easier to develop pastimes, we concern ourselves with our relationships or our facebook pages.
Most people will probably die with one or two things they are truly proud of. Raising kids or running a marathon, whatever it may be. But I look at people treading water, people working meaningless jobs to keep this machine running for those people canny enough to go against the current and do something they care about, and what I see is an immense and saddening waste. Sure we need bin men, and factory workers and everybody else. But by laws of economics, or nature, these jobs will always be filled. I am talking to you, and asking whether you are treading water, or are you doing something that is pushing your grey matter to it’s limits? To make new discoveries, you must first understand those that went before. To write a symphony, you must know the depths of music theory. To build a successful business you must have a network, and relevant experience. These things might not pay right away. It might start out as a voluntary thing, you might need to pay tuition fees. Do it. You are your biggest investment, and your time is your currency. Think about where you’re spending it.
“The trouble is, you think you have time.”
Dream.Think.Speak 