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- BN#77 - The Pathless Path by Paul Millerd.
BN#77 - The Pathless Path by Paul Millerd.
In this week’s newsletter, I’m excited to share my Book Notes on The Pathless Path by Paul Millerd.
Agustin Cisneros
January 17, 2025
Hello Everyone!
This was an interesting book to read. It got me thinking about two things.
1) Which type of work would make me feel like it’s the work I was meant to do?
2) What if self-employment is the only path towards doing such work?
At this point in my life, these two thoughts are a recurring theme.
“One of the biggest things the pathless path did for me was to help me reimagine my relationship with work.
📚 Book Breakdown
Topics: Career Advice & Entrepreneurship.
Type: Main Idea
Pages: 220.
Personal Rating: 3.5/5
Main ideas/concepts - Okay
Stories and examples - Okay
Engagement - Good
📖 Book Notes
“It can be tempting to pick a path that offers certainty rather than doing the harder work of figuring out what we really want.”
In this book, Paul offers a new way of thinking about work and life.
One that demands you to embrace uncertainty and discomfort while experimenting with different modes of living.
“Study hard, get good grades, and get a good job. This is the default path.”
And it’s supposed to be a life formula that guarantees happiness.
But what happens when it fails?
After successfully following this path for many years, Paul started questioning whether this was the only approach towards a fulfilling life.
Is the default path such terrible advice?
It might not be. But there are those who have reached the end of this road and wonder if meaningful work awaits on the other side–as self-employed.
To them, the biggest challenge is following an alternative path by giving up “a series of decisions and accomplishments needed to be seen as a successful adult.”
My favourite concepts from the book were:
Tame your fears. (Pg. 86)
Design for liking work (Pg. 142)
Go find out (Pg. 190)
Overall, this is a good book to read if you are in a similar situation and contemplating whether self-employment might be your next step.
It offers a series of reflections on leaving a prestigious job to actively explore and discover the work that you want to keep doing.
My biggest takeaway from this book is that…
“Many people who leave the default path do so because they’ve become cynical and are driven by a desire to escape.
But escaping is only the first step of leaving a certain path behind.
To create a sustainable journey and path, we must find ways of orienting to the world that leave space for hope.”
-Agustin
✍️ Favourite Quotes
“…Find a mix of work, people, and a way of orienting [yourself] in the world that [feels] like it was a path [you] were meant to be on.”
On the pathless path, the goal is not to find a job, make money, build a business, or achieve any other metric. It’s to actively and consciously search for the work that you want to keep doing. This is one of the most important secrets of the pathless path.
Faith is an essential part of the pathless path and many people mention it when talking about embarking on an uncertain path.
I appreciate your support!
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