I have just really realised even more deeply why I left my corporate job 21 years ago. I have just finished reading Hugh Macleod’s wonderful book Evil Plans – Having Fun on the Road to World Domination. It is a humorous and poignant look at the journey from a career you don’t enjoy to freedom and creative autonomy, and work that is personally meaningful and lights your heart up. 
The book made me think and feel a lot, and smile out loud a lot too Mostly on a train going to and from Sheffield two days ago. I was going to give a talk to massage practitioners at the Massage Training Institute annual conference.
It was one of days I cursed high-speed trains because I wanted the journey to last longer so that I could read more of the great book.
Evil Plans helped me further articulate why I left my corporate job in 1989. I have never doubted that is was the right thing to do. I have no regrets and somehow struggled to explain precisely what the impulse was.
Why did I really do it? Here is what I can now say: I quit my corporate job in IT because it didn’t allow me to give enough to the world. In my heart, I felt there was so much more to me--a person I knew in my heart that I sensed I could become. Crazily, I thought I had a gift to share with the world. I left because I wanted to be my best every day, to play to my strengths and do what I love most. I wanted to be free to give my gift.
Selling IT, however successfully, never drew the full potential out of me and was never deeply meaningful to me.
Today, after twenty-one years of running my own business, I realise what it has given me: the freedom to discover and give my gift, in ever expanding ways. I get to share my best self with people, most days. I am blessed to have found people who need, want and enjoy my gift. Sharing my gift is an act of love. And love is the only thing that really matters. I would go as far as to say that sharing my gift brings me closer to God.
So, whatever the crazy dream in your heart is, trust it. It comes from a source greater than your mind. Your dream will draw out your gift and the best in you. And there will be times when it will bring you to your knees. But your real life, the life that your gift offers, is worth getting your heart broken open a few thousand times for. That’s why I left, and I am so glad and grateful I did.
Giving my gift has led to meaning and success beyond my wildest dreams. And it can for you too. We need your gift, so give us what you’ve got. Life’s too short and precious to spend it doing things that don’t matter. As Hugh MacLeod says so eloquently on the end of his book: “Love doesn’t have a purpose. Love is purpose.”
Other blog posts by Nick: Comunity and the Inspired Entrepreneur, Beat Your Resistance and Honour Your Creative Impulses
Nick Williams travels the world sharing a life-affirming - and profoundly spiritual – vision of work and entrepreneurship. A sought after speaker, best-selling author and broadcaster, Nick is on a mission to help people move beyond their fears, play-bigger in their lives, and transform their passions into profitable businesses. He is the author of six books including the best selling The Work We Were Born To Do and is co-founder of http://www.inspired-entrepreneur.com/.
Books By Nick Williams:
Seed Newsvine