Some people are really good at anaesthetizing themselves from this feeling, hell, I tried it for a while. Out of college, I landed a job as a consultant for ProcewaterhouseCoopers. At the end of my first day, I knew that the corporate world was not for me…three years later I finally left. After a brief sabbatical, I moved to New York City, I thought, maybe it was just the company, so I landed a job as a Financial Controller at a major REIT in Midtown. All along knowing inside that I was entrepreneurial by my nature and that I could not possibly feel satisfied outside of dreaming up ideas and constructing them from scratch. At that job I had a corner office on 5th Ave over looking the Empire State Building, I had all the corporate perks, and was bulling a six figure salary, and killer perks…in addition to that I wanted to throw myself out of my 35 Story Window wall everyday. Finally, after a long series of events I left and did what I had always wanted to do, start my own company, dreaming up ideas and building them from scratch.

You (and Gladwell) are absolutely right, I think when people are most transparent, they know exactly what it is that will allow them to be satisfied with their work, the trouble is articulating that and being honest with yourself about it THEN (and this is the tough part) being able to walk away from all the security/pragmatism that kept you from following that intuition in the first place.

Great post, Ryan

I will say that throughout my career I have been very fortunate to always have work that I enjoy and love, but there's a difference between something that's enjoyable and something that's meaningful.

It took a while to realise, but it slowly dawned on me when my boss slowly pulled me away from the things i enjoyed and was good at and into what made his company more profitable. I work in a smallish consulting company yet treated like a number. I would do long stints interstate, away from my family but never once got a simple thanks and just like you Ryan, sometimes thats all it takes.

Each time i get home to work on my websites, I find that meaning I seek and know I'm taking the right path.