I spent much of my life playing it safe. I jumped from company to company, taking jobs that I had little to no passion for because of what they represented: a “respectable” option, and an escape from the last job. So many people around me seemed dissatisfied with their jobs too. Eventually I accepted it as just a fact of life. I told myself that some people got lucky & found work they loved and that maybe I just wasn’t one of them. I told myself I should be grateful to have a job at all and to stop complaining. I told myself that I couldn’t afford to make the kind of dramatic career change I longed for, both because of the fear of screwing up my resume and becoming unmarketable and because I was literally scared of taking a pay cut, running out of money, and ending right back…