I let go of a life-changing opportunity, deliberately

Exactly three ways back, I went on sending a job application spree and applied to over half a dozen companies as a marketing manager.

I know what you’re thinking - ‘Taha, aren’t you already working on your marketing agency?’

Yup, I am!

I have been working on it non-stop for the past one-and-a-half years.

Yet from time to time, I like to explore opportunities. It’s good to have options, you know?

So let me tell you the story.

I applied to over 6 companies over the past week. Most of these companies were big shots for me. You know that feeling when your reality is Burger King and you desire to enter a five-star restaurant? It was the same for me.

And applying to these companies requires resumes.

I don’t have one.

So I went over to my LinkedIn profile and downloaded the entire profile as a resume and sent it ahead. Fast forward to a few days back, I heard back from one of the companies.

Now this company isn’t your average software company. It’s a marketing company that provides solutions to business owners and is active in more than 180 countries.

AND THEY WANTED ME ONBOARD!

Here’s what their offer letter said:

Long story short, it was a pretty good offer.

And despite being a pretty good offer, I had to say no.

After talking to one of my friends about this as well, here’s an explanation that I gave:

Even though this is one of those times when you’d love to jump on an opportunity and seize it for life (hold up Eminem);

I still don’t think I’m ready yet.

Let me tell you what I mean by that.

One newsletter back, I reflected on my feelings about a birthday creeping up and how I feel about that. And last week, it finally happened - I celebrated my 25th birthday!

25 is a considerable age of achievements in today’s world. I feel that what I’m doing at 25 is what I should have been doing at 20. And what I was doing at 20, I should have been doing at 15.

See jobs are interesting for a lot of people. A daily job gives you a sense of security, a fixed and growing income, and most importantly, keeps you in an ecosystem of people that work towards the same goal as you.

But you know what don’t jobs have?

Moving ahead.

That came straight out of my 5th standard geography book, sorry!

However, when you think about it, things start making sense.

Humans evolve. If we don’t, we’re not humans. Every year since our childhood, we move from one standard to another. Learn one thing after another every year. After we finish high school, we have a vague idea of what we want to do. We’re not sure yet, but we try, we just take up a path. Then some of us make it into college. We follow the same pattern of moving from one year to another, learning one thing after the next. Some of us make it to finishing college, and some of us don’t.

But as soon as we get a job, our life comes to a halt. We drastically reduce learning, we get comfortable making money, and we end up fulfilling our job descriptions for the rest of our lives.

AND THAT’S NOT BAD!

It’s appropriate for most people. Most people prefer such lives because hey, why not?

We get one life, right? Why not live it happily and have some sense of safety and security in it?

For me, however, I can’t do it. Not yet! We enter a job and we find permanent successions for the rest of our lives in the same field.

But I believe that 25 is still not an age to just get comfortable with a job and fulfill your responsibilities in a single place. Even though this opportunity was exciting, I can’t really say yes to anything similar until I ABSOLUTELY know that I can’t make it on my own from here on out.

Am I going to continue doing what I am right now for the rest of my life?

Maybe not.

But I don’t want to live knowing the fact that I didn’t try when I could.

On that note, have a great week!

I’ll see you soon!