The Pathless Path: Imagining a New Story For Work and Life

prestige is “a powerful magnet that warps even your beliefs about what you enjoy.”

Sixth, go make something.

Finally, be patient.

People who defined their work as a calling saw their work as “inseparable from their life” and worked, “not for financial gain or career advancement, but instead for the fulfillment that doing the work brings to the individual.”

“We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us.”

The only people who achieve much are those who want knowledge so badly that they seek it while the conditions are still unfavorable. Favorable conditions never come.

In Weber’s view, a “traditionalist” view of work is one where people work as much as they need to maintain their current lifestyle, and once that aim is achieved, they stop working.

Seventh, give generously.

Why the disconnect between how people define success and how we think others define it? Just as when we talk about taking leaps and picking life paths, we simplify the messiness of human nature down to simple stories. When we talk about our goals, we disguise our intentions, especially if we think they demonstrate greed, envy, or pride.