Swapping The Suit for The Tracksuit

I was moving up the ladder.

My career in enterprise tech was turning into something real. I’d been promoted to senior sales development rep, I was flown to Toronto and New York to learn consultative selling. I was on my way to becoming an enterprise seller.

Then a spanner got thrown in.

I’d won a state championship in Victoria, and an offer came to go play rugby overseas. When I looked around my circle, everyone was doing the right things - time in their professions, building careers, climbing the same ladder I was on. Stepping off it felt like falling behind every one of them. Was it worth throwing all that away?

I went anyway.

They were getting promoted, buying places, some getting married (for the second time). They were ticking the boxes we agreed were the boxes. Meanwhile I was on the other side of the world chasing a game with no title, territory or salary band. Some nights I’d lie there doing the math on what I’d walked away from.

The detour I was terrified would set me back is the thing that made me. The ones who stayed learned the ladder. I learned who you become when you step off one.

The ladder will always be there.