My Bungee Jump

Do you know those movies of  Ismail Yassin when he reads a book about the secrets of getting rich in few days, then he starts to follow the tips in the book blindly and end up getting himself into huge troubles and disasters!?

Today I bought a book called, "Screw Work, Let’s Play - How to do what you love and get paid for it". I just have read 11 pages of it so far, but it doesn't matter, as I am 99% sure what I want to do, but the remaining 1% that is stopping me from taking an action is that I don't know how to do it. Here's what I've read so far to get an idea of what I am talking about.

These people are part of a growing tribe around the world who are not content just to make a wage to pay the rent, but want their lives to be about something larger – creating something unique, saying something important, trying new experiences, having some fun, taking a few risks, and daring to fall flat on their faces – or win big and strike it rich. They want freedom, variety, challenge and excitement; they want to stretch themselves, and to keep evolving every day.

The internet and mobile technology have freed us all to work however, wherever, whenever we want. Old restrictive boundaries are dissolving; between local and global; employee and entrepreneur; professional and amateur; consumer and producer; home and office; work and play. Our options are now so much broader than just employee or business owner. What does all this mean? It means that there really is no reason left to suffer boring, unfulfilling work.

"I never went into business to make money – but I have found that, if I have fun, the money will come", Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin

A common belief is that the natural alternative to a job is to launch a business with all the risk and complexities of premises, staff and funding. But there are now so many different ways to make an income without a job: self-employed, internet marketing, passive income streams, portfolio career, micro-business. 

Should I continue the book and follow Ismail Yassin footsteps!?

My current job; it pays me well, it has a good career path, if you count the organizational levels from top to bottom I might be on the 3rd level from the top there. I am managing a team of brilliant engineers. And I almost everyone there is a very dear friend more than a co-worker. On the other hand I write for Global Voices, it's a volunteer job, i.e. no money nor career path in there. But guess which job I do with more passion and I believe I am creative more when doing it!? Exactly, the later and not the former.

But despite the fact that I think the articles I write for Global Voices are good ones - you tell me, may be they aren't. Despite this, I was never offered a job in the field of media, nor in Global Voices itself. Needless to say that NY Time, The Guardian and even The Next Web don't even know me.

Disappointing? But may be the secret I enjoy writing for Global Voices is that it is a volunteer job. May be if writing turns to be my career I will hate it.

Is this the career I want? I am sure that I am not sure it is. See all the big names I just mentioned, I never applied for a job in any. So, may be this means I never thought of it as a career for me.

So, why do I want to change my career if I don't even know what I want to do? Hopefully after reading the book I will be able to answer your question. I can't deny that Cairo traffic on my way to and from work plays an important role here. Cairo traffic is a b*tch! But in brief, may be because I am bored, and don't feel challenged to be more creative in it.

I'll tell you a secret about me. If you want to beat me in a discussion just repeat it twice. I will do my best in the first time to debate and convince you with my point of view, but the next time, I'll be really bored to argue and will agree with whatever you say to skip repeating myself. I hate repeating myself. I hate doing one thing twice, let alone three, four, or hundreds of times. And I am repeating myself a lot nowadays.

Shall I become an entrepreneur? I write code with passion too. But entrepreneurship is too cliché nowadays.

Taken by Carla MacNeil under creative commons license

I know how harmful this post might be to my career. I might loose my job because of it. But it's like those who do bungee jumps, they might loose their lives if the rope get cut yet they do it to feel the thrill. Pressing the publish button of this post is as thrilling as pressing the send button of an email I just wrote to a girl I love, asking her to marry me. You know this might ruin your relation with her forever if this she doesn't share the same feelings to you, yet you have to send it.You send it with your heart beating a bit more louder out of worry, yet having a big smile on your face.

See you later, after finishing the book.