You’re right about McKinsey grads who go on to do their own thing. I just wonder if it’s impossible to do both well. Isn’t that the key? Balance?

Wouldn’t every 28 year old love to make $200,000 at strategy consulting firm X, while having their own business, and travelling the world for 1.5 months a year?

What I think you’re bringing up is the considerable difference between motivation and realism. And I think it is a point that the writers on this site should probably keep in mind.

About six years ago, I decided to break out on my own working as a consultant after working at a Fortune 500. Within 18 months, I was going to my $25/mo gym to shower because I couldn’t afford the $150/mo gas bill (this is where I learned the difference between the asset accounts “accounts receivable” and “cash”). Should I have taken the risk? I don’t know — I’m sure I could be in a different place in my career had I made a different decision. But, the experience was incredibly important to understanding the right way to be an entrepreneur.

There’s *nothing* wrong with the template life. “Different isn’t bad, different is simply different.” But, for some, the template lifestyle isn’t for them, and having a community of others who see the world similarly is both helpful and inspiring. In some ways, I’m almost jealous of those folks who are lawyers or financial analysts who work hard and eventually make partner.

As for the McKinsey example — there are a lot of folks who take their McKinsey experience and launch something on their own, which is a testament to McKinsey’s ability to develop people. I think if you’d interview a lot of those people who are now on their own, they would probably say that they went into their role at McKinsey with the goal of being solo.

Do you think there is a risk that an untemplater movement might wrongly encourage those in the template life to take risks they shouldn’t?

I think it’s important to live life now, and with NO regrets. Yet, I wonder if there will be many who will regret not leading the template lifestyle, even though Thailand was a great boondoggle? Who says having a template lifestyle is bad anyway? Or, is it just more fun being cool?

Why not work at McKinsey & Co making $200,000/yr at age 28 AND doing something on the side?

Interesting question. I’ll say this — I think it is safe to assume that the risk associated with breaking the template (i.e. leaving a stable job for the wonders of self-direction) is what holds back the people who might aspire to an Untemplater life. The recession did two things: 1) it changed the risk element (i.e. you can’t find a job or don’t have the stability you originally thought you had), and 2) it changed what matters (if I’m doing all of this work for a chance to get laid off with two weeks of pay, then why wouldn’t I just try to do this on my own and do the things I want to do).

For those already leaning toward breaking the template, the recession helped push them over the goal line. For those who were laid off or are otherwise unemployed and are selling themselves as a “consultant” as a way to land the next job isn’t really a strategy to live the Untemplater life, so I’d say there’s a difference between the two.

Do you think there would be LESS Untemplater-type people if there was no economic downturn? In other words, do you think this arse kicking we received from the economy dislodged many people from working their dream template lifestyles and are forced to do something else?

As for when to leave … I think there are so many factors to this point for folks, it makes it very hard to answer well. The recession has made it much harder to take the plunge (though, I feel strongly that having 5-to-9 experience on the resume makes it easier to find a job), so that would legitimately hold some back. For me, it’s a matter of finding the thing I really want to do. If that is embodied in another role in my current 9-to-5 or another role somewhere else, I’m open to that.

Carlos’ recent post about letting go of control speaks to what is a very important part of this lifestyle, and that is that you really never know who you’re going to meet or what’s going to happen. You might get discovered Hollywood-like by a successful entrepreneur and get recruited to his company, or you might get four amazing referrals to your services that could pay the bills ten times over. I believe that, if you’re not open to new relationships and opportunities, even if they come from unexpected places, you’re not going to get to take advantages of a lot of the chances presented to you.