The question underneath every other question
What's your orientation to capitalism?
When folks ask me for career advice I've been giving them a new prompt:
Figure out your orientation to capitalism.
It's the question before every other question.
I see a lot of creatives struggle for years trying to navigate Business in America. They jump between managers and products and teams, waiting for something to feel like 'home'—but they've ignored this basic thing: how do you relate to the system itself?
There are, I think, four broad ways to relate to capitalism:
⛪ TRUE BELIEVERS
love the game. They think business, properly executed, is a righteous endeavor. They don't need their work to change the world—they need to win.
🚫 NAY-SAYERS
feel... complicit. Every day at work feels like a small betrayal of their values. They burn out not from overwork, but from misalignment.
🏹 TRANSFORMERS
want to change the system from within. They'll work at big corporations or startups, but only if they believe they're moving the needle toward something better.
🔫 ESCAPISTS
are ... dreaming up new frontiers. They're starting projects and startups that operate outside traditional business structures. They've writing new rules.
None of these is right or wrong. But most people never consciously identify where they fit and shape their career around it.
When you understand your orientation, career decisions become a bit easier. You just want to avoid putting yourself in a context that runs directly against what you value.
The misery comes from misalignment. The Nay-Sayer person trying to optimize their way to happiness. The Transformer stuck in a purely extractive role.
Once you know your orientation, you can find your people. And your people—the ones who share your fundamental relationship to the system—those are the ones who will energize you, challenge you in the right ways, and build the kinds of things you actually want to exist in the world.
Curious what folks think of this model.