It is about 3 months now since I left the corporate world. While I am grateful for the past 9 years of doing my role as a Planning Executive, I am glad that I took the plunge and immersed myself to the world of the blue collars. Family and friends were shocked and wondered why I decide to slink down the corporate ladder.
I am doing it for my own personal improvement.
I see this journey as a chapter to discover my inner calling in life. This sudden realisation came to me after my late father’s passing. He was 66, and succumbed to prostate cancer. I see my dad’s life as I see onto mine.
I was 32 then and naive, thinking that I got everything under control. This tragic episode forced me to take a step back and review on my life.
I started to look at my career. By looking at the trajectory of my career, I knew that my salary is more or less fixed on a certain ceiling. Promotions are hard to come by, coupled with a manpower downsizing on my department. I foresee that technological advancements will force my role to be obsolete in the coming decade.
Instead of waiting for the guillotine to drop, I made my plans to leave the company. Deep down I wanted to experience what it is like to live a life of self-reliance.
Total reliance is an ideal. As part of the human collective, we strive on cooperation and teamwork. In my corporate world, although there are notions of collective rapport, the problems or situations that arise often betray the well intended actions. Backbiting, name blaming and the shocks from your superiors sneaking up behind are just a few stuggles that I deal with.
I wanted to break loose from the conventions and improve my enterprising mind. I learnt that the best way to do this is to go out there and fend for myself. Armed with a relatively decent savings that can last me about 1 year max before I hit empty, I began to look for opportunities elsewhere.
I looked within. I listed out my strong points and my weaknesses and tried to search for that primal inclination when I do something I truly enjoyed. I realised that my passion is to serve the public. I loved the civic mindedness of the military and one’s duty to guide humanity. I hoped for that mentor, or probably a sign. Just something as a guide…
And then I came across an ad, on beginners’ haircut which I can use by using a $500 credit off my skills enrichment fund. I have been cutting my own hair and experimented with my siblings as well. My experience, although limited has a slight advantage. And so I signed up.
Opportunities are like a meandering path. You may never know where it leads you. But you have to trust the process and understand that eventually you will reach the end of the path.
One place leads to another. After posting a few photos of barber related stuff on social media, I got an offer to collaborate with a barber, which eventually lead to a job.
Here I am, working as a barber. The journey has been incredible, and nothing short of the experience I seek.
Looking back, I felt that someone was watching over me. It felt like all the events that happened to me somehow connects, like pieces of a personal jigsaw yet to complete.
