When is the right time?
The other day, I was speaking to two dozen interns at a famous investment bank. These kids were at the top of the
heap. Famous colleges, involved parents, the right network. Here they were at a huge conference table, perhaps
25 feet long, in their blue suits and white shirts, the very center of the privileged universe.
By just about every measure, these twenty-year-old students have more options than most. Career options, family
options, geography options - choice is everywhere.
I spent about half an hour talking to them about broken escalators and their freedom, and how they could choose
to do their very best work, to become more than a cog in a (profitable) machine.
Hannah raised her hand. “But maybe it makes sense to wait. After all, we have student loans to pay off. It doesn’t
make sense to take risks now; later, when we’re better established, then we can find our own path.”
Here’s the thing: It’s never the right time. When you are starting a family, it’s not the right time. When your kids are
about to go to college, it’s not the right time. When there’s an elderly parent depending on you...
We have a thousand perfect reasons to give up our freedom in exchange for the illusion of safety.
All of them are based on a misunderstanding of fear vs. freedom.
This is the chance of a lifetime, our lifetime.
Not someone else, us.
Not later.
Now.