How to find out what you're meant to do

A lot of the generalists I speak to struggle with the same question: how do you find what you’re meant to do? 

It’s a complex question with a simple answer: 

You take two long, hard looks. Backward, and forward. 

Let’s dive in: 

[1] Take a look back 

I believe our childhood and teenage years are quite revealing to what we’re meant to do. 

Looking back, the fact that I became an entrepreneur only makes sense: 

• At age 9, I picked chamomile flowers from a meadow nearby, dried them in the sun, packaged them in old jam jars, and sold them as organic, hand-picked chamomile tea. 
• At age 10, I noticed that a lot of people wanted to copy my Latin homework (my first foreign language in school, not kidding). So I started charging candies. And had an entire accounting section in the back of my notebook, always tracking who owed me how much. 
• At age 11, I realized that my dad was throwing away a lot of printed paper. So I took it, folded it into envelopes, and sold them to neighbors. 
• At age 13, I started trading Magic: the Gathering cards, made some decent money with it, and learned how to negotiate. 

I then stopped attempting to build my own businesses, and started doing more normal jobs instead. But when the opportunity came to me again after graduating from uni, I felt like it’s the right time. 

I believe this works for two reasons: 

1. Kids intuitively know what they like. 
2. We then do these things for an extended period of time, and that accumulates. 

While I don’t subscribe to the “10,000 hours to mastery” thesis (neither does the original study's author), the hours you accumulate in your childhood matter.

Every “talented” athlete you see out there probably did a ton of sports as a kid. 

So look back on your past and ask yourself (and ideally your parents!): what did I really enjoy doing as a child (that other children might not have enjoyed)? 

This will be your first pointer. 

[2] Take a look forward

It’s much easier to reverse engineer something than to invent something completely new. The second exercise here is to create a vision for your life (ideally, using a vision board). Ask yourself:

• What do you want your life to look like? 
• What people surround you?
• Where do you live, and with whom? 
• What does your ideal workday look like?
• How much do you earn?
• How do you spend your free time?
• What qualities do people admire you for?
• How often do you travel, and where to?
• How do you feel on a daily basis?
• What would make you proud? 

This isn’t a trivial exercise to be done on a Monday morning. But it’s gonna provide clarity into what you’re meant to do. Because whatever comes out of your vision board is gonna inform the work you’ll be doing from now on. 

For example, if you wanna live in a beautiful mansion with 5 children while constantly traveling the world … it’s about time to quit your job and become an entrepreneur, because you sure as s**t won’t make that kinda money in a normal employment. 

To me, freedom of decision is super important. I want to be able to make the decision that’s right, not necessarily the best for the business. If I have a manager or investors, I can’t really do that.

Solution: bootstrap a company or become otherwise self-employed. 

This way, you limit the options available. 

Constraints breed creativity. If you had an infinite canvas, you wouldn’t know where to start. If you only have a 30x30cm one, this becomes very simple. 

Doing these two exercise is a good start. But there’s still a lot of soul searching left. 

That’s okay. 

You are never your final product. 

There’s always room to grow. :)

Let’s have ourselves a week, shall we. 

LFG. 🔥

LinkedIn | Threads | X | Bluesky | Instagram | TikTok | YouTube

Whenever you're ready, there are four ways I can help you:

[1] Reclaim up to 4 hours per day and find time to do the things you've always wanted to do by enrolling into Personal Productivity OS.

[2] Hire your next Founder's Associate or other business generalist position with my startup, Generalyst Recruiting.

[3] You could also find your next startup job in Europe by simply applying as a candidate.

[4] Learn how you can build your career as a generalist by subscribing to this newsletter. ⬇️