shadow careers and lawyers secretly wanting to be writers (part 2)

I wrote last week about every lawyer secretly wanting to be a writer.

On Tim Ferriss' podcast, Steven Pressfield recently spoke about shadow careers. About the acting agent who really wants to act. About the entertainment lawyer who secretly wants to be a screenplay writer.

He talked about how we often find something adjacent to the thing that we really want to do.

It's less risky.

The "who am I to do this?" and "what if I fail?" thoughts aren't nearly so scary if you don't give a shit in the first place.

In some ways, it seems to be easier on our subconscious to never risk failing at the thing we most want to do. Or maybe we just aren't sure we're worthy of that big goal, and so we get as close to it as a smart moth gets to the flame.

It made me think about lawyers who secretly want to be writers. We spend most of our day reading and writing. Even those of us who argue cases and negotiate all day long still need to put pen to paper to draft their briefs and their clauses.

Could law secretly be a shadow career for many of us?

Maybe.

It's also prestigious and one generally makes a good living. Making it very much the safe choice. My gut tells me that safe and prestigious choices tend to end up as shadow careers more often than risky ones.

If you could try out any profession for 6 months, and then either stick with it or go back to your old one, what would you pick?

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