Inside The University of Melbourne

Imagine you’re a regular guy, you go to work, pay your taxes, hang with friends and party on weekends. You lead a rather average existence, like most people.

Just imagine you died tomorrow.

Perished. Just like that.

What legacy would you leave behind?

Sure, your friends would feel sad, your family would mourn but what do you really leave behind? You worked at at your job who will find a new employee to replace you and all that hard work, blood sweat and tears you put in will be gone to waste.

There isn’t much of a legacy left behind. You spent your creativity, energy and time on helping fulfil someone else’s dream.

Nobody cares about the endless hours I put in during my Investment Banking days, nobody cares about those all nighters, those deals or those endless tasks I completed.

It means nothing any more, they got my six-figure salary and nothing else.

Sure, it might raise eyebrows I was an Investment Banker when someone asks these days but ultimately there was really no legacy for my hard work left behind.

I bailed on that life, took my hard earned money and started working on my own projects.

Why? I wanted the freedom of not being tied down to a job that leaves me no time to pursue my interests and hobbies, I hated those long hours, those endless nights and the depressing thought of waking up the next day knowing life really wasn’t going to get any better.

I failed, over and over initially, even considering a move back into Finance. But I kept going.. I held on to hope, hope that tomorrow would be a better day, after every failure I re-traced my steps, and made an effort to improve. It worked, I started making money doing my own thing, initially not much to fund a lifestyle but enough to give me the drive to push on.

I slowly realised I could live doing online work, running ventures and doing whatever took my fancy. I left the toxic city that made me so jaded and moved abroad, I felt re-born and had the drive to push harder than I ever had before, it didn’t feel like work, it felt like I was getting closer and closer to my goal, my dreams.

I look at the arch of my life now and realise if I died tomorrow I have so many projects that would live on after my life and could make a difference to other peoples lives that I truly have some sort of legacy. It might not be a family or my genetic bloodline left behind but its something more than what I would have had I stayed in banking and slaved. Knowing this gives me great comfort.