I recently wrote a post on LinkedIn speaking about how I devoted my early career to working myself into the ground. I had the ‘dream life’, yet, I had no time or mental energy outside of my working day to enjoy. A former work colleague commented “it took me years more than you to understand that life is about fun and doing what you really want to do, enjoy’. This got me thinking about how many people never come to this realisation. Or if they do, don’t ever act upon it and stay in their unfulfilling corporate role.

When I left the corporate world behind, I wasn’t even convinced that I would leave it behind for good. I had to overcome a lot internally in that process and had a love/hate relationship with the organisation I worked within for most of my career. I left twice, just to return twice before finally leaving the third time.

Why do we hold on?

A lot of those limiting beliefs can be summarised as a fear of disappointing those around you. This can sound like ‘what will people say?’, ‘am I not a success?’, ‘is all that time invested, now wasted?’. Even the expectations of parents and siblings can creep in as ‘everyone else in the family has always been very successful in their corporate careers, so I should be too’.

This internal battle can be especially true for high achievers. When everyone around you is saying that you’re a great success, and destined to be in a leadership role, you start to question your own feelings and intuition.

Fear of the unknown

4% of workers in the UK want to set up their own business (smeloans.co.ukok), which doesn’t stack up with the 15% that are currently self-employed in the uk (gov.uk). Why then, is it so difficult to leave the corporate world behind for a life of freedom? Why is it so hard to let go of our corporate titles and entities?

We crave security and routine, which means survival and being able to provide. A corporate role ensures both. When we become so used to a routine, change can be daunting and difficult. Leaving a corporate career comes with feelings of risk. Self-employment comes with uncertainty, you have to find your feet again and learn and fail. We naturally fear failure in our work because that could ultimately mean failure to provide for ourselves.

There’s always the haunting feeling that if we give something up, we’ll never be able to find a similar opportunity. There’s the realisation that you’ve never been on the other side, we wonder – what could that look like? We justify staying in the corporate world out of fear of the unknown.

You can always go back to a corporate career. Yet, you may not always have the opportunity to live as you want or to follow your calling.

Social status

You also get accustomed to a specific lifestyle, buying into all the things you believe will make you happy. Often, a business venture will require resources in terms of time or funds, which means forgoing small luxuries until it gains traction.

Promotions, positive reviews and having ‘the corner office’, employee of the month, rewards systems and bonus schemes are all dopamine-enriching rewards. If you are not getting those 1,000 emails a day, you don’t have a team to lead and it’s easy to feel less important. 

False beliefs

I see all these beliefs of staying in the corporate trap:

‘One day I’ll be able to retire early’, ‘one day I will take that career break because all of this hard work will pay off’. Realistically, many of us work until we’re 65 with little savings, health problems and are past our physical prime to go on adventures and travel, we would often prefer a quieter life by that point. Why not start to take those mini-retirements and discover the depths of life now? Why postpone freedom and curiosity and happiness for later?

You become accustomed to ‘this is what I’m good at and trained for’ and you stop seeing the other options out there. If you’re noticing and admiring or envying those who have paved their own way, maybe it’s because that drive is inside you too. Similarly, if you’re in a happy and fulfilled relationship, you will not look at other people or envy those happy couples. If you’re unhappy or unfulfilled in your life, you hone in on those who are, looking at them with awe and sometimes jealousy.

Taking the leap

Corporate careers are not inherently a bad thing. For many people, that environment of set work, routine, progression up the ladder, social status and belonging to something much bigger than themselves is the environment in which they thrive. If you don’t start to question these beliefs and deny the thirst for more and desire to find out ‘what if’, you live with the regret of not trying it.

It is absolutely never too late – the average age of an entrepreneur is 40 years old! In fact, nearly 10,000 businesses have been started by entrepreneurs aged 60 and above. A huge 91% of them succeed in the first year (thecircularboard.com).

If you feel like you are destined for more than your current role can offer but need help realising your goals and ambitions, please get in touch. We want to help you live the life you want and deserve.