When I was 18, I started my career in manufacturing. At that stage in life, I had flunked my A-levels, was ill-disciplined, drinking, smoking and thought too much of myself. But I had the sense to know heading to University ‘for the experience’ was the wrong direction. Three more years of barely applying myself and being financially inept would only set me up for a bigger fall, I may not recover from.

My first inkling that life might not be so easy, was an interview at Ernst & Young for a lowly accounting trainee. I had no sense of who the company was, their global presence or their reputation among the ‘Big Four’. After a miserable aptitude test, I remember the conversation with the HR representative in the elevator on the way to the interview. The look she gave me after our exchange told me not only what I already knew about my prospects at Ernst & Young, which wasn’t a steady career path up the ladder. But also, about my outlook in general.

I realized, I needed to be humble, take some back steps and correct the mistakes of the past two years. My natural interests in the humanities and social sciences, in my perspective did not offer the path to stability and respect I was searching for. However, Engineering did, even though in the UK it was not the most fashionable career. I moved forward and worked at improving my performance in aptitude tests and preparing better for interviews. After months of searching, I was able to land a job as a Technical Apprentice in the Automotive Industry.

I started on low pay, bottom of the heap, but there was training, a clear direction and the possibility to go to University part-time. I applied myself and set the goal to be selected for the Engineering Degree in two years. I was regularly at the kitchen table in the evening working on my Mechanics or Technology Assignments.

I hadn’t fully straightened out, there were still the cigarettes, night’s out and hangovers. But I had my priorities and most of all I was finding meaning applying what I was learning out in the factory. I could see myself becoming a better person day by day.

I made it to University, and on my first day I encountered all these people with the title ‘Dr.’ in front of their name. Immediately by next goal was set and I knew, my experience with academia would not end with my degree. And so, ten years later I exited academia with a Doctorate, ready to fulfill my next dream and work overseas, which happens to be here in Silicon Valley, where I am writing this article some seven years later.

During my twenties and thirties, meaning and purpose came from self-development and personal experience, which happened to be in manufacturing, academia and the opportunity to see the world. These experiences helped to straighten me out and become a better person. There were failures, big failures along the way in my personal life. But I am thankful for the people who were close to me during that time, and I recognize that my growth provided the opportunity to have them in my life and for me to be open to all that they had to offer.

It is now that I sit here, that I look at manufacturing and wonder what it means. My experience in Silicon Valley has been transformative, my mindset has changed, I am less cautious and bolder in my decision making. I am more comfortable with psychological pressure and the fight or flight instinct it brings. I am a signed-up advocate of the reality distortion field. However, I am at that stage where I am questioning what is my self-development for? Is it to make more iPhones, more Electric Cars, more Drones? Also, is the industry I am in now, benefitting everyone equally and providing opportunities like it did for me?

These are questions I think about, when I look towards my second mountain (This is the metaphor I got from the dust cover of a David Brooks’ Book), I wonder about what benefit the work I will do will be for the people around me? What learning and development will be like for them? Also, for the people in the global supply chains I interact with every day. How are they growing and developing? Do they see the larger purpose that their work contributes? Along with the paycheck this is what a career means, a true north that people can direct themselves and observe the improvement along the way.

This is the question I am struggling with. When I first entered manufacturing, it provided a route to development for the young and aspiring and a steady income for those on the production line with regular hours from which they can aspire if they want to.

These traditional companies have been outpaced in recent times by innovative, fast paced companies. As a result, many in UK manufacturing have struggled to adapt and survival has become about a race to the bottom, with zero-hours contracts and a continued contraction offering less opportunity and less prospects for the future.

In Silicon Valley, it is about 60 hour weeks, reality distorting deadlines and an ‘always on’ mentality which is often well rewarded for the college educated and, when manufacturing is still located in the Bay will still offer good pay for those with a high school education and potential for growth and a career ladder to climb.

If you are going to use the world’s resource. It has to provide benefit, to the miner that extracts the minerals, the industrial designer or stylist that sculpts out the first inklings of a product out of clay, and the technician that helps to keep the machine that makes the machine operating. It has to offer a tangible benefit to the society that either contributes to making the product as well as to the markets in which it is sold. Not just the consumer or the shareholder but the environment and everyone in it.

This is not just about money, but about meaning, opportunity and making a lasting change. Innovations should not just be about faster product lifecycles, but making something of value that will last, five, ten, or fifteen years. The product that keeps getting better and continuing to contribute. And in so doing, maybe the price point needs to change along with the wealth distribution throughout the supply chain.

I don’t have the answers in this blog post, just a lot of questions. Questions, I keep asking myself. I hope someday I will make a contribution to the world beyond the product itself. It is the tension, I am trying to hold and not run away from. To create my own mini distortion field as I try to figure out my next step. My second mountain is not in view yet. I am wandering the wilderness in between, maybe left, maybe right and one day over the horizon it will appear.