What's After BigLaw & Consulting? - Allie Canton & Paul Millerd On Reinvention, Parenting on The Pathless Path & as Parent
· 2 min read
Allie and I discuss our shared experiences of leaving traditional career paths to explore more authentic lives. Allie, a former lawyer, talks about navigating parenthood, part-time work, and her numerous interests while stepping off the default path. We chat about how Allie was inspired by ‘The Pathless Path,’ the ship, quit, and learn framework, and our upcoming experiments with nomadic living. Allie also talks about burnout, and alternative ways to live meaningfully.
Follow Allie’s writing and podcast on Substack: Practically On Purpose
- 0:00 – Intro
- 02:49 – — How Paul’s writing found me when I was lost
- 04:56 – — Quitting, loneliness, and posting your real income
- 08:15 – — Defining the Pathless Path: embrace uncertainty, keep your sense of humor
- 11:28 – — Money stress, past-self gifts, and choosing priorities out loud
- 14:07 – — “Why are you doing this?” Because it feels right (and that’s enough)
- 20:30 – — A real Tuesday in the life of Paul
- 24:22 – — Traveling Village: 20 families, three countries, open questions
- 28:05 – — School vs. education; raising curious humans, not resumes
- 32:33 – — Ship, Quit & Learn: how to start things without a playbook
- 35:56 – — Optimizing for aliveness
- 37:55 – — Tradeoffs on cars, houses, and a year of travel for $40K
- 41:03 – — Partnership alignment, and writing your shared story
- 45:51 – — The Accidental Meaning Hypothesis: why “the package” became the point
- 52:24 – — Capitalism, private equity, and systems that keep evolving
- 54:06 – — The “secure the bag” economy and caring about work
- 56:18 – — A week with miserable lawyers? Hard pass (but we kid… mostly)
- 58:19 – — New season: fatherhood, fewer hours, more intention
- 1:01:34 – — Good hard vs. bad hard; writing as the edge worth pushing
- 1:04:09 – — You don’t have to feel bad while working (really!!)
- 1:05:32 – — The gorgeous hardcover of The Pathless Path is coming
- 1:07:21 – — “Find the others”: community, WhatsApp, and global meetups
