I was carried away by the sound.

Beautiful beyond words. Beyond anything I had ever heard.

Each note more glorious than the last. A soaring concerto. A virtuoso violinist.

I was the commencement speaker at a high school music academy. And this masterpiece—this breathtaking prelude—was played by a graduating senior.

I leaned over and whispered to the assistant director beside me. “What music school is he going to?”

She rolled her eyes. “He’s not. His parents want him to study economics.”

I was stunned. And sad.

What the world would never hear.

But more than that—I knew exactly how his story might unfold.

You see, many of my clients come to me later in life. In their 40s, 50s, 60s.

They’ve followed the path they were told to take. Graduated top of their class. Got the degree. Landed the high-status job. Collected the big paycheck.

And now they’re miserable.

They don’t know how they got here—or how to get out.

They feel lost.

For that young violinist, the detour came the moment he stepped off the stage. He had the wrong map from the very beginning.

Career guru Dick Bolles—author of What Color Is Your Parachute?—says that following your dreams still matters. Love still matters. Loving what you do matters.

Benjamin Bloom at the University of Chicago studied 120 world-class athletes, artists, and scholars to uncover the secret to greatness. It wasn’t intelligence or privilege. It was one thing:

Extraordinary drive.

Drive fueled by passion.

“A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself,” said Abraham Maslow.

I asked a coaching client today how he ended up in law school instead of pursuing the philosophy degree he once loved.

“People told me to be realistic,” he said.

Too many parents—and too many of us—follow a map handed down by culture, fear, and outdated assumptions.

We push young people into debt, into lifeless degrees, into “safe” careers that leave them empty.

And years later, those same bright souls show up in my office—dull-eyed, drained, asking, “Is this all there is?”

It doesn’t have to be that way.

If you’re going to climb the ladder of success, make damn sure it’s leaning against the right wall.

Make sure it’s your wall.

Start with love.

Start with what stirs your soul.

That’s the only map worth following.

And here’s the truth: it’s never too late to chart a new course.

To rewrite the story.

To choose passion over prestige. Purpose over pressure. A life you love over one you merely survive.

Create a new map.

Start with love.