Just because everybody else does it

Doesn’t mean you have to.

Just because your coworkers and your boss answer emails 24/7, stay late routinely, neglect to take breaks, and always have packed schedules, that doesn’t mean you have to.

Just because most people you know work 9–5, Monday through Friday, 48 weeks out of every year, until they’re 65 years old, that doesn’t mean you have to.

Where I grew up, whenever a kid said, “I did it because everybody else was doing it!”, adults would ask: “If the other kids jumped off a bridge, would you do it too?”

You don’t have to do what everybody else does.

I know people who:

• Retired in their 30s after working as engineers
• Make a living by playing poker online
• Work just a few hours a week as a freelance web developer
• Travel the world while doing remote consulting work
• Quit their jobs to teach what they know, online, from anywhere

These people are happy, in part because they forged their own path. You can too.

Yours,

— Peter