My colleague disappeared overnight.

He'd been there more than twenty years.

He didn't count his hours, he was compliant and super professional. Maybe too much so...

Friday he was at his desk. Monday it belonged to someone else.

No drama. No warning. A political decision at a higher level, and it was over.

I've seen it happen more than once. 

Another time, it was this employee who forgot his beer can in a corner of his workspace. He had a drink with his lunch to celebrate his birthday..

Three days later, he was transferred elsewhere. He was sidelined.

A simple can that wiped out years of investment at work..

Or this other lady who got sick. She was replaced without any consideration.

I don't even know what became of her.

Different jobs, different people, but always the same story. 

And every one of them thought the chair under them was permanent. Right up until it wasn't.

When people talk about job security, they skip this part.

None of it belongs to you. One meeting you're not in, and it can all be gone by Monday.

A job can pay you, but it should never become the place where you expect loyalty, meaning, or permanent security.

If your entire identity lives inside your job, it's the best way to become fragile when the job changes.

I know what I'm talking about. I paid a heavy price for it for years. And if it hasn't happened to you yet, it could end up happening to you sooner or later. 

I don't think jobs are bad. I've got a very good one, and it's treated me well. My salary does more than just pay the bills.

But even a good job isn't a foundation.

That's why I started writing online. Not as a backup plan. Not as a side project. It's the first thing I've built in three decades that nobody else holds the keys to.

The words I post each morning belong to me in a way no job title ever has.

You don't write online to escape the job. You write because everything inside the job can be taken back. The title, the desk, the relationships. What you build outside of it travels with you.

So if you have a job, I'm not telling you to leave it.

The opposite.

Your job is doing exactly what it should if it gives you the income and the space to build something parallel. Something nobody can sign you out of.

The job feeds the writing. The writing is what you own.

Can I ask you something?

If your job disappeared next Friday, what do you wish you'd already started?

Reply to this email and tell me. I read them all, and I'll write back to you.

I hope you never get that Friday. But I'd build like it's coming anyway.

So build a life bigger than your job. Now.

Speak soon