Following a calling is a non-linear narrative.

When you follow a call in your heart, it is not often the path well-traveled. It is not often the straight corporate path, the obvious road to success, or the thing that feels most safe. Following a calling is a leap of faith, and there is indeed some danger.

I am not a blind advocate of following a dream, a hobby, or a passion. Virtues do not live in a vacuum—the virtue of following what we feel called to, what our intuition guides us to do, must also be tempered by other virtues like wisdom and temperance. Pursue your calling, yes, but tie your camel too.

A calling usually calls more than once. It's not your typical spammer. It's persistent. It rings over and over and over. It wants your attention. It demands it. It will try you many times over the years.

I am at somewhat of a crossroads in my career. I have leveraged a tech career to make a living. It is not my favorite, but I'm good at it, and it pays the bills. On the other hand, I have dreams to contribute in an artistic arena—consistently as a musical artist, yes, but also through organizations that help young musicians in financial need. I want to leave the world better than I came into it, and pursuing a tech career exclusively doesn't feel like the path for that.

So, there has been this calling. Over and over, a calling to organize a non-profit to help musicians study music abroad, to be cross-pollinators of musical styles and cultures, to be cultural diplomats.

I have had a zero-sum mentality in some respects—that I must pursue a tech career, get fully financially secure, and then I can pursue my other dreams freely. This narrative is a deception. I have actively gone against it in my life by straddling both an artistic and a tech career simultaneously. But I am trying on a new perspective. Perhaps pursuing the calling—the arts, the non-profit—may be a non-linear path to outsized financial gains.

How could that be? I can't say with science or certainty, but I can claim it anecdotally. Studying the sitar and gaining proficiency in that instrument has opened up so many doors, many outside of music itself. It has connected me to people—many powerful and influential—in areas completely outside of music. I have gotten tech gigs through friends I made in music. I have a rich network because of circles I was able to enter with my unique sitar offerings.

I am adjusting to the idea of trusting in emergence. Follow the calling, and trust in what will emerge. It is a shift from a controlling mindset—needing to be in full control of my own life—and trusting that when I follow the calling, the universe will unfold things I could never expect.