The Pathless Path: Imagining a New Story For Work and Life (The Pathless Path Collection Book 1)

by Paul Millerd

What I really wanted was to be part of the “inner ring,” which C.S. Lewis famously detailed in a lecture given at King’s College in 1944. He argued, “…in all men’s lives at certain periods…one of the most dominant elements is the desire to be inside the local Ring and the terror of being left outside.”14

For many of my coworkers, McKinsey was only a stop on the way to bigger things. I adopted this attitude and embraced a version of a career which philosopher Andrew Taggart, who writes about our modern relationship to work, describes as “a first-person work‑centric story of progress about an individual’s life course.”15

This is the trap of prestigious career paths. Instead of thinking about what you want to do with your life, you default to the options most admired by your peers. In describing the power of the inner ring, C.S. Lewis warns that, ”unless you take measures to prevent it, this desire is going to be one of the chief motives of your life, from the first day on which you enter your profession until the day when you are too old to care.” He believed “any other kind of life, if you lead it, will be the result of conscious and continuous effort.”

The philosopher Andrew Taggart believes that crisis moments lead to “existential openings” that force us to grapple with the deepest questions about life.16 He argues there are two typical ways this happens. One is the “way of loss,” when things that matter are taken from us, such as loved ones, our health, or a job. The other path is the “way of wonderment,” when we are faced with moments of undeniable awe and inspiration.

German historian Max Weber found that the “spirit of capitalism” struggled to take hold in societies that embraced a “traditionalist” mindset towards work.18 In Weber’s view, a “traditionalist” view of work is one where people work as much as they need to maintain their current lifestyle, and once that aim is achieved, they stop working.