One of many
Usually, I do not travel during rush hour because I know how challenging it is. It is so crowded and so busy. Over 2 million people use the London Underground every day.
Somehow today, I completely forgot about the time and had the privilege to be one of them. As soon as I approached the tube station I remembered again why I stay away from public transport during the rush hour :-).
The entrance was jam packed with people and we all shuffled forward one tiny step at a time. As I stood in the middle of that crush of people I just thought: “How can all these people do it? Commuting into the city during rush hour every day? Twice a day? Really?!”
Zombies everywhere
When I finally got inside the station, for a while I watched all of those people jammed together, moving in synchronization – a step at a time and suddenly one word came into my head: “Zombies” They looked like film extras in some mindless Zombie film!
Suddenly I remembered an experience I had a couple of years ago. Back then I was working for a financial company as a Project Manager. My job was to set up a new branch and as the whole Management team was from abroad – I was the first point of contact for everything.
Enlightening perspective
On one occasion I was walking with my Manager to a meeting and because he wanted to “feel” the culture of the city, we took public transport. As we traveled, he experienced the real city and observed the people around us, it was then he pointed out the “Zombie” phenomenon to me.
It was actually quite enlightening to “see” things from his perspective that first time – people who were walking just like zombies, being part of the process and not even realizing it. I am sure you know, what I am talking about – the usual 9 to 5 job drudge.
Is there any other choice?
At first, I actually felt really offended at his remarks, because I was the member of that system, right? I just did not understand what he meant at that moment and I simply replied: “Do we have any other choice? We have to pay bills, don’t we?” He just smiled at me and replied:
“There are many choices out there.” Our conversation ended there but I thought: “Yeah, right, it is easy for you to say with your salary.” I had no idea about other choices back then. Luckily for me, things have changed radically for me in the last 2 years and today I was able to ask myself:
“Why do they do this to themselves? There are so many other choices for them out there. There is no need to go through zombie process anymore.”
A different way of living!
The internet allows us to work anywhere and anytime and how you like it. You can work from home or from a coffee shop. You can actually work from any place you want as long as you have a laptop and Internet connection.
You can work when you want to, where you want to and how long you want to with who you want to and especially what you want to do. You can work on your own terms. The internet allows us to start a SUCCESSFUL business today easier than it was years ago.
As my former Manager said: “Everyone has a choice”. You can make that choice because you now know there are different options. No need to do “Zombie Stuff” anymore. You can do what you love to do and get handsomely paid for it.
