Yeah, not having a backup plan is insane.
You want to be a writer, a pro football player, a doctor, an engineer, or fighter pilot.
That’s all well and great, by all means, chase your dreams.
But what happens when you can’t find a paying gig, you get cut your first week in the NFL, you can’t get into medical school, you can’t pass Calculus III, or you flunk out of pilot training?
If life does not work out exactly like you thought it would, you should be mentally prepared to turn a few of your goals into hobbies or – consider achieving them in a tangent way.
For example, maybe you can’t be a professional writer – but maybe you can blog as a hobby.
You might not make it to the NFL as a player – but maybe you can eventually be a coach – or trainer.
Perhaps you will never be a medical doctor – but maybe you can be an optometrist, or pharmacist, or psychologist, or maybe a nurse.
If you can never be an engineer – you might have a fulfilling career as a construction manager.
And if you cannot be a fighter pilot – you might need to entertain the possibility of becoming a drone pilot, or an airline pilot.
The point is the same in regard to having more than one skill.
If you lose your job, you always need an alternative.
“Every man should make his son or daughter learn some useful trade or profession, so that in these days of changing fortunes of being rich to-day and poor tomorrow they may have something tangible to fall back upon. This provision might save many persons from misery, who by some unexpected turn of fortune have lost all their means.”
Also published on Medium.
