During a sushi session with one of my friends, we were talking about the current job market as well as the declining economy. We discussed about a friend who recently lost his job, and other friends who are worried they might lose their jobs and their backup plans.

He said that he was talking to one of our other close friends about the entire situation, and that they said that they can’t have much of a backup plan because they have to play by the rules of society – they specialized in one thing (like how most people are taught to in schools), and because of that, they’re limited to jobs in that particular specialization. The tough part is that such jobs are drying out because of the current market.

Then, he remarked that they also agreed that I break rules. I asked him what he meant by that, and he stated that I get to do whatever I want without fear of finding or losing a job, and it was because I took the uncommon approach of studying too many subjects. He noted all the times where I would bring homework or reading material to when our friends and I hung out or had dinner together, and where it brought me now.

I had to ask him, why is it that I can break the rules, and why couldn’t he? He said it was because it’s a matter of motivation, drive, and passion for something more than just a tiny picture, and none of them had it or know how to find it.

Driving him home, I realized something while thinking about the entire topic at hand: I wasn’t studying and working hard for just a goal I had in mind, but the ability to safely break the rules that we are commonly guided by.

I feel it’s true in a sense – I take a lot of risks, a majority of them calculated; I’ll usually find myself with an unworkable result, but because of that, I’m driven to understand the exact causes that lead to the result, and try again until the procedure can successfully be replicated.

Yeah, in reality, I’m definitely a rule breaker, or, what my friends tend to state, “The Exception”.

But, I still continue to wonder, why can’t it be all of us?