A quick programming note that this is the 12th and, for now, final AMA I will publish in the newsletter. Incredibly I’ve been answering your thoughtful and provocative questions for a whole year now! I’ve enjoyed it so much, but a lot has been happening in my life of late, and I have a lot to write to you about later in the year. You can of course continue to send me questions and I’ll answer them as soon as the time is right. Thank you to everyone who wrote in, it’s been fun!
I want to be an entrepreneur, to be really honest, I had many goals that changed according to the situation, but in all my goals, I had always wanted to be an entrepreneur in that particular industry. But I am not feeling confident enough, or I think it’s not serious enough for me to actually start instead of contemplating it. I want to change the mindset, then I go back to where I started. Is there any way I can pursue this goal of mine?
Kacy, India
🛤️
Dear Kacy,
I am no entrepreneur, I’m quite terrible at making money, actually. However, the entrepreneur and the artist are, in some ways, cut from the same cloth. Both are vocations, not jobs; they require sacrifice, courage and commitment, journeys with no map and a real risk of failure.
So I will answer your question as an artist and I hope, Kacy, you’ll find it useful.
If you are able to, I’d like to suggest you give yourself an hour and go to the train station nearest you in India (or an airport if it’s closer). Don’t pack anything, you’re not going anywhere. Instead, arrive at the terminal and take a seat. I want you to sit in that train station and be present there for a short while.
In our dreams, train stations and airports and the like are symbolic places: they represent liminality, the state of being between two identities. You have left one version of yourself, but you have not yet evolved into the next. (If you have dreams of being late, lost or otherwise frustrated in an airport or train station, it could mean you subconsciously feel stuck in one aspect of your life.)
The liminal state is scary and unsettling. Here, we are like a lobster who has just molted our shell that no longer fits and, until the new one grows, we are vulnerable.
I sensed from your question that you are stuck in that liminal place: you have a desire for freedom, but you don’t feel able to move towards it; you are trapped in a train station, watching the world going by. You are, in your own words, “contemplating” boarding a train, but never doing it.
So what’s holding you back? It could be many things, but it seems from your short question that it is confidence, either in yourself or the “seriousness” of your pursuit. You are waiting for a map, proof that the destination is going to be worth the journey.
I’m sorry to tell you Kacy, no such map exists — not for the artist or the entrepreneur. We rarely feel like we are on a “path” because — by definition — we are making one up with each step.
To make this journey we each must leave an ordinary state of being behind (with its many clear paths) and move with faith into the unknown. That’s why it’s the setup to every great story – they are grand metaphors to help each of us make precisely this transition.
But there is no way around it — a journey into the unknown means exactly that.
So I think, Kacy, that the change you’re looking for is not with your mind, but with your legs. The purpose of a threshold is to cross it. So, whenever you feel ready, stand up and walk towards a platform. The train will be there, waiting to carry you to worlds unknown.
Thank you for your patience, I know it took me a long time to reply to your question.
Until another Sunday soon,
