Alternate Careers — Are You Feeling Trapped in the What-Ifs?
Most of us want to play ‘safe’ as far as our career is concerned, we like to tread the path which is already proven. This surely leads to a natural tendency of disapproving or disliking any unconventional career option given the risks it may have related to a stable life.
Most Indian parents of the previous generation have seen real poverty, or at the very least, experienced living in curtailed circumstances. They know how life has a way of trampling dreams underfoot. Hence, they consider unconventional career options to be for the rich and well connected, who have a cushion to fall on in case their dream profession doesn’t work.
As far as the middle-class family’s children are concerned, they would like them to stick to the tried and true methods of climbing up the socioeconomic ladder.
Also, keeping in mind the amount of media influence that we are exposed to, it’s easy to become misguided because we’re often given a skewed perception of different lifestyles. If you let social media tell it, everyone is living their lives like it’s golden.
There are very few people who give you a glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes (the good, bad, and ugly). So, if we stick to the harsh reality of life it’s easier to walk on a career path that’s tried and tested, keeping in mind the hardships and negativity that we might have to face otherwise.
However, as the saying goes “If You Love What You Do, You’ll Never Work A Day In Your Life”- there is a sort of discontent when we do something we do not like. We can continue the work for months, for a year, or say for some years; but at some point, it will hit us that had we done something which we genuinely wanted to, things could have been different. Also, risks are involved in any particular field, it’s just about the fact whether someone is willing to take it or not.
Astorianz Industries hosts a series of virtual events and interviews on their virtual platform known as STORY’anz where people from all walks of life participate and share the stories of their successes and failures, acceptances and rejections — the stories of their “woohoos” and “boos”. To attend the next event, you can register here.
In India, we have various examples of people who chose out-of-box and unconventional careers. It was something that they wanted to do and are at the zenith of success. Had Sachin Tendulkar pursued something in the academics, we Indians would have lost an opportunity to witness a world-class cricket player. Same goes with Shahrukh Khan, Lata Mangeshkar, Chetan Bhagat and many more, who have earned their names in their domain of interest.
There are so many athletes, sportspersons and people in all sorts of media and communication businesses that ditched the greed of cushioned careers and took that leap of faith. They carved their own niche and are striving every day to stay at the top of their game.
“If you’re on a path that’s not the one that you want to be on, you can also pivot, and you can also move, and age doesn’t make a difference, race, gender. It’s about putting one step in front of another, about forward movement to where you wanna be.” — Ava DuVernay
Taking the example of Colonel Sanders who at the age of 65, when most people are looking at slowing down and retiring, began with KFC and we all know where it stands today even after his demise.
Unconventional career options are a little off-track for anybody, but balancing out the risks that are involved with the passion and zeal that one has for the same is necessary. We only live once, so we should rather take the chance than regret, later on, thinking about the ‘what ifs’.
