Reaching out

Someone said to me; “I will be following from the sideline.” Honestly, I like that thought. (Love to) build it and they will come (maybe). Life is about reaching out, and in some cases, waiting for someone to reach out. Both are good; life is a balance between push and pull, between wanting and waiting. Are you driven toward something or driven away from something? Knowing what you don’t want can be a powerful force because then the outcome is open. There is no fixed goal, so perhaps you’ll discover something unexpected while you run away from the unwanted. Going for a specific goal can be good, but sometimes it will give you tunnel vision. And sometimes you don’t really know what you want. As in many other cases in life, the main thing is to be aware of those different approaches and to consider the balance between actively seeking out things and just letting things happen. In my experience, serendipity is seriously underrated. My work life can be said to be a fairly good example of this. For 25+ years, I have had my own one-man company, and as if by magic, work opportunities have found me at the right pace and at the right time. Something interesting has always come up when I was close to being bored and/or slightly scared. Being self-employed has always felt like freedom with a touch of fear. It may sound like a somewhat passive approach, but no. It has just been the way things worked out. Very privileged, I know. Less than a handful of times have I reached out to get work, and in those cases, it was mainly a desire to work with a specific company. For instance, I’ve been a fan of Bang & Olufsen since I was a teenager, and it was on my bucket list to do some work with them. So I made an active choice to go to Struer and show my work. I did a couple of consultancy jobs there and for a couple of other cool companies along the way. But most of the time, interesting work has come to me, and I am super grateful for that.

Sometimes I need a break from social media, and then I simply stop posting and stay quiet for a while. Sooner or later, a few people will reach out and ask if everything is OK. Those who know me will know that this is normal procedure for me to take breaks and go semi-offline for a week or two. But it is appreciated when people who don’t know me well reach out to check if everything is OK. At one point in my life, I had a feeling that some of my relationships were asymmetrical in the way that it was always me who had to reach out to keep the connection active. So I made a choice to not reach out and then wait and see. Those friendships died in that operation but left space for new ones. All good.