In my case: In grade school we were taught that a 4-year degree was essential for success. In high school, we were taught that the more prestigious the university, the better your life would be. Only losers didn’t attend university. The higher the salary, the more respectable, worthy, and happy the person. In college, we were taught that the bigger the corporation you worked for, the richer, happier, and more respected you would be. Our undergrad courses were visited by recent grads in suits who worked for accounting firms, etc and everyone looked up to them. Students who did not want high-prestige jobs out of the gate were deemed by the professors to be losers, misguided, and inherent poor performers. We are conditioned from an early age to strive for the large corporate path, and our parents can be particularly forceful drivers of this messaging whether or not we are aware of it. The messaging feeds itself by pervading all academic, family, and social aspects of society.

for section 1, i’d add something listed under section 4 – not enough role models, people who do something different. i wonder if this perhaps ties into the generation differences? baby boomers used to choose one company that paid well, stay loyal, not deviate too much from the common path, consume consume consume.

Seth Godin said it all in Stop Stealing Dreams…

for section 2, i’d add the politics and ‘the game’ in the corporates. not the best and hard working ones get promoted, but the ones who play ‘the game’. it’s all about appearances, perceptions and presentations.

finally, i think section 4 onwards would be more logical as part of chapter 3, not here.

hope it helps!

Working here has opened my eyes to the ‘third way’ – not staying on the mega-corp travelator or taking the risk of starting out on my own but going somewhere where I really count, and I have control over my working/non-working life.

It has its downs as well as its ups but having worked as a ‘cog’ for big business, experienced start-up life where I still had to relinquish control to the owners and freelancing not knowing where my next job would come from, this is the best arrangement of them all, particularly having recently become a parent.

Happy to talk more, share links etc.

Max