Welcome to this week’s capsules. Today, we will begin looking at the third category, those who have discovered themselves but keep procrastinating on the decision to pursue their talents and capture their dreams because of the ‘golden handcuffs’ of their jobs.

I first came across the term ‘golden handcuff’ in The Girl Entrepreneur, a book by Ibukun Awosika. In this great piece, Yewande Zaccheaus, (the pioneer of event management in Nigeria) shared her story and I’m sure you won’t mind hearing her story.

Yewande worked with one of the popular banks in Nigeria, for a period of about fourteen years and rose so high in her profession. Along the line, she realised banking wasn’t her passion. She dug deep within herself and found out that what she loved doing was organizing and planning ceremonies. She googled it and found out it was a huge market overseas but was a virgin market in Nigeria. She was determined to give it a try. So she resigned from the bank, took a corner in her husband’s flat office and began to operate from there. She wasn’t paying for office items or labour as she maximed the usage of her husband’s office and his staff. Also she began exploring her contacts from the banking industry were she had served for many years, telling them she could help them plan their events. Within the space of one year, she had broke even, moved into her own office and was making a decent profit from planning events

Here is my point, Yewande claimed she had to war within herself before resigning, considering the golden handcuffs that came with the job; fat pay check, several official cars (including an SUV), drivers, cooks, sponsored trips abroad, mouth-watering profit sharing and other bonuses. For her, it was a very tough decision to quit. She said, once a very close family member said to her “what do you intend to do? Resign from such a reputable job and begin to plan parties for people?”. It was a huge challenge but she damned the consequences and in the long run, it paid off largely.

Let’s face it. Sometimes the job offers you so much, that thinking of having to ever quit that job to face your dream could seem suicidal. However, one fact you must never forget is this, THE JOB IS BUT TEMPORAL! The spotlight is on you for as long as you are performing very well. Once you are no longer as productive or once you attain a certain age, or once there is a need for a downsizing, all the fantastic benefits may be withdrawn, and even the job might be taken away.
Sadly, by the time you realize this, your youthful strength with which to pursue your own dream might have been long gone and you might be back to nothing in a couple of years or less.

Punch line, it pays to follow after your talent and build a career of fun and leisure, one that will outlive you, one wherein you can never be fired, retrenched or retired. Think about it…