The Corporate World Was Killing My Soul from the Inside. Writing Saved It.

Maybe it can save yours too.

Are you a corporate warrior? Do you go to work every day? Maybe you work from home. It doesn’t matter. The distinction doesn’t make any difference.

What’s the first thing you do at work in the morning?

Maybe you power up your company laptop, its keys smudged with the grease from your fingers. Sandwich crumbs lie under the keys, out of reach of your reasonable attempt to dislodge them. “Whatever, it’s not my laptop.” You login in and boot up your e-mail software.

The nausea-inducing glow of the Microsoft Outlook application splutters to life. Ironic, because the only thing it is capable of is murder.

Death by e-mail.

You discover, to your horror, that 200 e-mails have flooded your inbox even though you have only been away for 2 days. It’s not shocking, because more than 300 billion e-mails were sent in 2020. That makes almost 820 million e-mails a day. Consider receiving only 200 e-mails in two days lucky.

So now, you realize at this moment that you are part of a nameless army of corporate workers. Scattered all across the world, speaking different languages, yet united in its detest of corporate e-mail.

And then you are amazed by the artificiality of the global corporate edifice, the coldness of business e-mail, and the improbability of it all. It is but an idiotic tale, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Business communication is a string of empty words

“I hope you’re well”— Do you really hope that I am well?

“A gentle reminder…” — Yes, because we are all passive-aggressive.

“URGENT AND TOP PRIORITY!!! “— I know, I’m on it!

“Have you submitted the invoices?” — Not again…

“Please find the file attached…!” — You forgot to attach the file?

I used to think that academia was bad for having its own “language games.” Turns out, the corporate world has its own, just the same.

Maybe you’re an accountant. Surely you’re familiar with the language of quarterly reports and financial KPIs. Operating margins. Gross profit. Operating profit. Or maybe you’re a salesman. Did you hit your sales target? How many leads did you have last month? Did you “sandbag” last month to make your sales numbers look good?

Doesn’t any of this language sound bizarre to you? Just listen to yourself blabbering this stuff at the next monthly sales meeting.

I’m a marketer.

Buzzwords dominate the marketing field. Conversion. Engagement. Awareness. Customer Journey. Consumer Experience. A stream of jargon that changes like the spring/autumn fashions. Surely, if you’re a competent marketer, you included some of these words in your last proposal.

So, whether or not you call yourself a writer, you are in the business of spinning stories.

You are in the business of writing worlds into existence. You hold the power of creation in your hands.

Yet, if you’re a wage slave, the worlds you have spun into existence do not belong to you.

Imagine, you — a god with the power of creation, forced to give up the world you have made…

We are cursed with the gift of the written word

Our destiny in the overeducated society of today is the curse and gift of literacy. It is a powerful tool, that in ancient civilizations would have been reserved for the elite. Even in 1820, only 200 years ago, it is estimated that only 12% of the world population was literate. In 2016, only 16% of the world population were illiterate (source).

In other words, for the first time in human history, almost everyone can read and write. Literacy is so important it literally determines your life chances. That’s why raising literacy in developing countries is critical. But, more importantly, our civilization has gone one step further; it has universalized higher education.

Never, in the history of the world, have so many of us eaten from the Tree of Knowledge.

Never, in the history of the world, have we educated so many people, only to give them soul-crushing jobs.

Starved of my own words I was dying from within

Being a marketer means that you’re in demand — or so I am told. It must have some basis in truth since I get a lot of headhunters sending me e-mails. “We’re looking for someone with your passion and experience!”

The truth is, the corporate world was killing whatever was left of my passion. My soul was dying from writing things that I really didn’t care for. With every business e-mail that I sent, I was killing myself.

Maybe you too, are dying from the inside. Depression is so common globally. Maybe capitalism is capitalism really is alienating us from our human nature and our desire to create. Evidence? Look no further. People are quitting the corporate rat race in droves to be their own bosses.

The corporate world nearly broke me too.

I became desperate for a creative outlet. I couldn’t play a musical instrument. I couldn’t draw. I couldn’t paint. I was not a Youtuber nor an Instagrammer.

So I turned to the one thing I knew I could do. I turned to writing.

The most cathartic writing is the one you write in your own words

And write I did. I wrote about academic culture. Cryptocurrency. Why people shouldn’t buy meme tokens. Moving to Japan. Consumerism. Capitalism and alienation.

And the more I wrote, the more my writing seemed to take on a life of its own. Letters grew into words and words into sentences. Sentences turned into something actually readable.

Did you know that we can unlock creativity simply by giving people autonomy? Why haven’t we realized this?

So I continued to write. I couldn’t stop writing.

Because I could not not write and remain sane. Writing had become my method of therapy; it was my refuge. Writing can do wonders for your mental health. I wish I had known that earlier.

I always knew I was not really meant for the corporate world.

Maybe, you, like me, were also not meant for the corporate world.

So if the words on this page speak to your bleeding heart — it is proof that yours is a beating heart. Life can still find you.

Writing saved my soul. Maybe it can save yours too.

The author writes on a wide variety of topics. His key topics are Japan, society, culture, modern work, and cryptocurrency. Discover his most-read stories here.

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