Have you been chasing the wrong kind of freedom all along?
There’s a line from Fight Club that’s haunted me for years:
“The things you own end up owning you.”
When I first heard this quote, I assumed it was merely a critique of consumerism — a warning about how our possessions can trap us. But after a decade of entrepreneurship and a life-altering health crisis, I’ve discovered this wisdom applies even more profoundly to our relationship with work.
The Freedom Paradox
Most of us feel shackled to our jobs, dreaming of the day we can finally break free. We fantasise about quitting, generating passive income, and living entirely on our own terms.
I used to share this dream.
Yet when I first took the plunge into self-employment about ten years ago, I stumbled upon a surprising truth: unbounded freedom can become its own prison.
Without structure, I floundered. With no schedule or accountability, I wasted precious hours simply deciding what to work on. My productivity oscillated wildly. Most troublingly, I wasn’t even enjoying this supposedly “ideal” lifestyle.
