Just started reading up on Lending Club and am planning on throwing some funds that way soon.  I have a general idea of how everything works there, but as several people here seem to invest at LC I thought I'd see if there was any particular advice or lessons learned that would be useful to myself or others.  Any/all advice welcome! 

I love the idea of absolute immersion which Tynan described in his recent article, "Love Work."  I intend to apply similar techniques to the next big job, project or passion that comes my way.  But I am not ready just yet.  When the time comes to make that leap, I'll be first over the edge, but for the moment I have found something else.  I've diverged from the 'normal' but have not found or created the next road.  In terms of a lifetime I am standing still.  Taking a break.  Stagnant.  But guess what?  You don't have to be running forward to smash complacency.  If you are tired of the status quo, but unprepared to leap into a new life, this post is for you.

I'm a mechanical engineer, more or less.  I love solving complex problems, but that love does not extend to the issues that come with the bureaucratic workplace.  To that end, I'm done with the corporations.  There are too many interesting problems in the world going unsolved to waste time and talent generating minute changes in stock values.  That's all I really did at my last job.  There was no sense of ownership in one's work, which for me led directly to having no sense of purpose.  I need a sense of purpose.

So last June I turned in my notice and looked at my options.  I had enough money to do whatever I wanted for the first time in my life. (I'm 30)  No ties to anything.  Basic freedom.  The open road.  It was overwhelming. 

I would roll through half a dozen ideas a day, thinking each better than the first before coming back to zero.  I have lived a pretty standard life; being faced with unlimited options is a foreign concept.  "What would you do if you could do anything?" That's a powerful thing.  Generally a rather decisive person, I was stuck with a decision life had not prepared me to answer.  At least not immediately.  I needed a stop gap.

So I packed up the car, moved from Seattle back to Tennessee, and started teaching.  A one year appointment at a state university, instructing sophomore level engineering classes.  You could call it a demotion of sorts.  You could call it a step backwards, career wise.  You could very accurately call it a 6 figure pay cut.  I call it perfect, for three simple reasons: