“You gave up a lucrative career and lucrative money. Poor you”

I gave up my successful career as a CA to become a writer. Or rather, even more successful writer.

One very common thing I get from people is pity. “Oh, you must be so brave. You gave up a lucrative career as a CA, that pays you really well, in order to become a writer. Poor you (pun intended).”

I smile and do not respond, here is why:

1. Life is about understanding that the more you become valuable in any field, the more money you make. It requires astute business sense, deep understanding of your field, and generous love for your craft. If you have none of these, you could be a pauper CA too.
2. I made a little less money than my last drawn salary in my first year as a writer, but then life has rewarded magnanimously, because I understood whose problems I wanted to solve through my writing, and how. Also, because there have been easily some 12-hour days behind this “easy success” 🙂

We spend our entire youth to study hard to gather degrees that give us education that give us jobs. Wisdom, though, is earned every single day for the rest of your life. Most of which is earned by being open to how others are living their lives. Carrying around sticky notes to label people is so-not-2026.

Lastly, dude I am a Sindhi before I was a CA. Make what you can of this 🙂