Why You're Having a Midlife Crisis (And What's Really Behind It)

From Royal Marine to oven cleaner: What i learnt about living with purpose

Mar 29, 2026

two red and white signs hanging from a metal pole — Photo by Sophia Kunkel

The School of Knowledge is the weekly newsletter for SME owners and investors who want frameworks they can actually use — frameworks, checklists, and operating manuals every weekend, built to read on Sunday and use on Monday.

Without chaos, disorder and instability, life would grow stagnant—die. It becomes some sterile version of reality, not worth living anymore. Professionally and personally, the leading edge is where change happens. You have to step across the boundary—from known to unknown, because that’s where evolution, innovation and creativity are waiting for you.

What’s the difference between being stuck in a job you despise for 40 years and a 12 x 8ft cell? Nothing. The sad fact is—most people get up and go to work for somebody else’s version of what it means to live life. You feel paralysed, trapped in a body betraying your own free will. You don’t want to be here—you swore you weren’t going to be—but here you are anyway.

There’s something lifeless about following another person’s dreams. When you’re a kid, your dreams are of being a rockstar, an athlete, an artist. I was always the footballer scoring the winning goal in the World Cup final. Nobody wanted to be a cog in a massive wheel.

You say dreams are for kids, but i disagree. They just look different as an adult.

A dream as an adult is working on something you value—not despise. A dream is having enough money to share experiences with the people you love—not dislike. You waste 40 hours of your week, or more bluntly—86.6 days of your year on a job you couldn’t care less for. A dream as an adult is waking up in the morning and looking forward to the day—not in a whimsical way, but because you’re ready for whatever the day throws at you.

A dream as an adult is doing something with purpose.

I never once imagined as a kid, or even in early adulthood, that i would enjoy writing. Even worse—enjoy writing about stuff like capital allocation, mental models or how to be a systems thinker. But you can’t choose who or what you fall in love with. 15-year-old Karl would probably be taking the piss out of 36-year-old Karl. Perhaps because i’m approaching 40, i’ve been thinking about midlife crises a lot more. I don’t think i’m the susceptible type, but i also didn’t see my future love for financial ratios either. But, why do people have midlife crises? I think people have them for many reasons, but i think many come back to one thing: purpose. Or more specifically—a lack of.

Us humans are a stubborn bunch. We’d rather be an insider suffering with the many, than an outsider. To go against the grain is to choose isolation. Writing about business couldn’t sound any more boring if i tried; it also sounds counterintuitive to what i’ve spoken about, but let me explain: The shoes on your feet, the coffee in your cup, and the eggs you ate for breakfast all come from businesses. People are businesses—plain and simple. Without people there can’t be any businesses.

So let me ask you again: What’s the difference between being stuck in a job you despise for 40 years and a 12 x 8ft cell? Nothing. But, let me ask it differently: What’s the similarity between being stuck in a job you despise for 40 years and a 12 x 8ft cell? A lack of purpose. Direction.

The School of Knowledge was born as a placeholder for my thoughts and has turned into me distilling lessons i’ve learnt from being a nobody to a Royal Marine, to travelling the world, to getting paid thousands of dollars a day to cleaning ovens for minimum wage. I’ve built many lives in my 36 years and they’ve all taught me lessons—lessons that as a business owner-operator i want to share with people who are trying to build a life or career they want. If you just want the mental models, concepts and frameworks then stay for those alone. If you just want to learn about how to run or start your company and gain financial understanding you can do that too. But for those who want access to it all—warts and all—there’s an offer below waiting for you to just accept it.

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For those that want to keep on reading about uncertainty and changing your beliefs (or lack of) start here: