Two people discuss why we feel pressured to chase measurable success and fear falling behind. One shares how a two-year stint at Boom Chicago, an improv theater in Amsterdam, led to better skills and new opportunities, not lost time. Careers aren't linear, and stepping off the traditional path doesn't mean you've missed out.
Chapters
We fear that we're gonna miss out on the thing that's in our imagination. Yeah. I think this idea is, is really lost on young people today, and it's not their fault. There's so much pressure to perform, to make it. How many followers do you have? Metric, metric, metric. Achieve, achieve, achieve. I mean, I've talked to people, I'm like, hey, why don't you take a gap year before you go to college? And they're like, no, I could never do that. I'm like, why not? They're like, I'll be behind. I'm like, Behind what? I think your career is a twisty-turny one. How does a kid who grew up in Chicago end up for how many years in Amsterdam?
My main chunk was 5, but then I piecemealed 2 more because I kept going back. And Boom Chicago, it was in Amsterdam and it was founded by some Chicago people. And so they were doing like Chicago improv as we knew it. When people would come to me here asking like, hey, should I do Boom Chicago? I'm like, oh my God, yes, you should. In fact, don't just go for 1 year. The first year you're adjusting. Go for 2 years, because the second year, that's when you get it. And they'd be like, oh God, but I'm going to lose progress in my career here. Wherever you're leaving, when you come back, it's going to be the same. It's going to be the exact same that it was before, and you won't have missed anything. And whatever opportunities are, you know, fated for you, they are fated regardless, you know. And if you just come back an even better performer than you are today, then you're going to get more gigs. And I found that to be true. You know, every time I left LA, I would leave often to go to Amsterdam for a while. And yeah, nothing changed. I can see the value of having a plan, but I guess it's like, don't be so locked into your plan that you don't recognize an opportunity.
