Luck versus choice, seeking more creative people, and starting a consulting practice

Frederic says there are emotions around the idea of sufficiency: he has always managed to do what he wanted at work, but each time he wants to change he feels it was just luck rather than his own doing, and fears he will not manage it again.

The Wonders ask him what luck is, cite the saying that you make your own luck, and tell him the choices are partly his mind but mostly himself.

They ask whether changing jobs would actually make him happier or is just candy for the mind; Frederic says the real aim is to get out of his comfort zone and meet more interesting people, with a job change as a byproduct.

They suggest he can meet interesting people starting elsewhere, and asks what kind - people who speak his language and are comfortable, or people who make him see differently and will challenge him, noting he both finds challenge interesting and resists it because he wants comfort and ease.

Frederic replies that even people slightly outside his comfort zone are not that different, and the Wonders propose that what he really wants is more creative people to challenge his own creativity, which he will not find in the same places as before.

They advise him not to resent the non-creative people around him - the majority of people his age and younger, they say, are unimaginative, told what to do all their lives, their creativity extending to choosing a red or yellow pencil - and to recognize that his frustration signals that he is seeking a more expansive existence.

They urge him to try everything, since trying reveals what he likes and dislikes, and note he finds it easier to know what he does not want.

They point out that he tolerates people at best and would be a poor salesperson, but his real strength is taking a puzzle and resolving it into something better.

Their concrete suggestion is to open a small consulting firm on the side, build a simple website presenting his qualifications attractively, target small and medium businesses - many struggling because of COVID-19 - and offer advice and guidance at modest but non-trivial rates, or even one or two freebies, in order to find out whether he enjoys it, rather than treating it as a whole new career.

If it grows he can build a bigger company and hire salespeople.

They close this by asking him to find tolerance and compassion for businesspeople who do not think as fast as he does, since each is a human being on their own journey.