The path to a zero-bullshit work life

Why Katherine Pomfret traded her marketing career for life off the grid.

On April 14, 2024, Katherine Pomfret announced a career change on LinkedIn: "I'm leaving marketing,”—then a line break, true to form for the genre. She was done with the sexism, lies, and stupidity, of making rich men richer. “A million pounds can't delight me more than a leaf does,” she wrote. She was going to live off-grid, in a caravan by a lake, and work with her hands and brain. Waitressing part-time would cover the bills. She was 46, with less than 10,000 pounds to her name.

Katherine’s posts since the announcement read like a manifesto for anyone seeking a zero-bullshit life. “You are a beacon of sanity and fast becoming the only person whose posts I bother reading,” one copywriter commented just a week after publicly gushing about “changing the world” with the amazing team at emailMarketing.com. My suspicion that she must have powdered her face and fastened a bright red nose to it before posting is strong but unprovable.

But it's true: I feel saner on Katherine's feed than anywhere else in LinkedIn's circus of pathological inauthenticity. She lays it bare: Use your talents, stay true to yourself, or pay the price for faking it. It’s not always comfortable to be reminded of what we know deep down but often avoid. For the disillusioned, what follows is a progression through the five stages of grief. Is this woman seriously calling me a fraud? (Denial). Who's to blame for my ennui? (Anger). Shouldn't I be grateful things aren't worse? (Bargaining). I wish Mark Fisher were still alive (depression). And finally: Can I summon the courage to change my life? (Acceptance).

Martin Amis said it: “The professionalization of ordinary existence: this is the enemy within.” We weren’t meant to study the humanities only to end up pretending we’ve always been passionate about payment technologies. We weren't born to chase KPIs and die with a pension, "met quota” carved into our tombstones. It is absurd to stare at screens all day, passive and distracted, incurious and inert, and toggle between a dozen digital infrastructures, always wondering what else you could be doing. We can reject the performative passion for products we don’t believe in, and the nodding along to bad ideas. We can walk away from the roles we're assigned by society. It is possible to make a living with integrity and to do business without greed.

Katherine's message isn't just for the burnt-out laptop class. It's for anyone eager to build a life with purpose and authenticity, anyone feeling trapped between what is and what could be. The first step is to get real with yourself. Clinging to false hope is just self-deception. At some point, you have to make a move. Maybe you'll find this conversation right when you need it.

You summarised your marketing career as having spent 25 years making things look a whole lot better than they were. Is there a specific moment where you were like, ‘This is not a life'?

I felt that way almost daily for a year before quitting. For years, really.

I published two illustrated satires on marketing in the tech world: Just Make It Pretty and How to Be Friends With Sales. The first one, in particular, sparked hundreds of messages of recognition, which was cathartic for both me and the readers—finding dark humor in the daily insults, microaggressions, and stupidity of those profiting off your talents.

The books really wrote themselves, and the characters are ones we’ve all met. It’s a lunatic asylum. But they also dive into the darker places, addressing the psychic harm that comes with it. For me, using humour and illustration in the style of a children's book was the perfect way to express what I wanted to say.

It’s been a year since you left your career to live off-grid and work in hospitality. How has your perspective on work and labor evolved?

Hospitality is just one part of what I do. There’s also silversmithing and writing (both fiction and non-fiction). My work life now is diverse, built around my passions, talents, and values. The last year has also brought new connections with others on similar paths. This has deepened my conviction that much of our approach to work is unhelpful.

We need to build around our talents and channel them toward values that matter to us. We need to outgrow childish obsessions with status, titles, perks, and kudos. We need to re-evaluate our beliefs about money, which doesn’t equal security or happiness. We need to stop participating in relationships and networks that perpetuate myths like "we’re worth what we’re paid" or "we're valuable if we abandon our goals to help others get rich."

Ultimately, the idea that we suppress our emotions, values, beliefs, and personality for 45 years in exchange for cash is looking stranger by the day: like a wasted life.

What was the hardest part about taking the leap?

Nothing. The hard part was everything before. Though, surviving the British weather in a van has certainly been a challenge.

What was surprisingly easy?

Here’s the thing: when you're living according to your values, immersed in nature, and putting your talents toward things that matter to you, life becomes easy.

There is no cognitive dissonance, no exhaustion, no fear, no guilt. There’s peace and ease in everything, and a rhythm to it. The sense of freedom that comes from refusing to wear the itchy mask anymore gives you energy and optimism, which you channel into your projects.

Of course, there are frustrations and disappointments, but they lack the ‘grand importance’ that everything in corporate life is given. (I once had a CEO call a 30-minute meeting just to ask why I’d posted an image on our socials with a less than 1mm white border on one side.)

To make a change, you mentioned overcoming things like ego, status, pride, reputation, attachment to material possessions, traditional markers of security, and the bland comfort of a conventional life. Did you have to unlearn these attachments one by one, or was there a moment of realization that dissolved them all at once?

I started buying and studying Buddhist literature when I was 13. I began seriously studying Yoga (including Vedic scripture and stays in ashrams in Rishikesh) eight years before I quit marketing. I started regular wild camping and hiking about six years before I quit. I began studying neuroscience about eight months before I quit. I started therapy about four years before I quit.

So, there was a years-long journey – though it wasn’t a structured program; I was just following what interested me – in exploring alternative models of understanding the world and learning to manage emotions and reactions, and operating from a place of space.

There was a LONG period of questioning: How have I been taught, and how much of it is actually true? And it's the same for others like me. The process of change takes about three to four years—overcoming cognitive dissonance, building self-awareness, and developing new frameworks.

There wasn’t so much a moment of realization as a moment of commitment when I could no longer afford to give the corporate world another chance or try to negotiate with it. I knew, without a doubt, that 100% of my life was for me.

Were you not afraid of anything? How important is courage?

Three months ago, I found a kitten in the woods. I invited her into the caravan for food and shelter. It was freezing and raining. She had no fear. She came right in, ate, and curled up in bed with me.

She had no fear because her life was so frightening that the chances of coming with me being worse than her current reality were low. There are foxes in the woods, it was bitterly cold, and although there were things to hunt, she was just a little kitten, and she was alone.

There’s a purity of mind that comes when we face the possibility of losing something truly important, like our lives or our sanity, that makes it no longer scary to lose trivial things like status or money. We see this all the time with immigrants to the West, taking dangerous journeys and leaving behind businesses and careers, all in search of safety.

A sad truth I observe often, especially with addiction, is that humans generally don’t change until they’ve suffered greatly. Until the suffering reaches a sufficient level, fear wins out. And afterward, we realise there was nothing to be scared of.

In “Bullshit Jobs,” David Graeber notes that our economies have become “vast engines for producing nonsense.”

This is well put. So few people understand what is truly needful. Only a tiny number could tell you:

• Why sleep is essential for emotional management

• How daylight helps regulate neurotransmitters

• What nutrition we require

• Anything about the basics of evolutionary biology

We don’t understand, intellectually or emotionally, what we need. And so, it’s easy to be distracted by things we don’t need and neglect ourselves.

On the other side, most traditional entrepreneurs are driven solely by money. They create things to make money, rather than being fueled by purpose or value. Combine these two – people making things only to sell them, and people who don’t know what they need – and you get the situation we have today.

Everything we need is mostly within us. Very little external to us is necessary. This is at the heart of most spiritual practices: stripping away possessions and distractions to focus on ourselves and grow detached from the world, able to move through it, but not seduced by it, not craving it, not dependent on it.

Do you think we can restructure our economies to prioritise societal benefits over profit?

I’m not an economist, but human greed and malevolence are real, and it’s hard to imagine how any political or economic system could entirely eradicate them. Players gonna play.

It would be remarkably easy to prioritise societal benefits, but these are often applied at the family level – maternity leave, miscarriage leave – rather than at the community level. The loss of real community, and the corresponding insular focus many now have on their family in isolation, has had a much more profound impact in the last 75 years than is often acknowledged.

We got private cars instead of public transport. We got TV at home instead of pubs, cafes, community centers, and theaters. We listened to recorded music alone instead of making live music in our social groups. Technology made it feel ‘easier’ to stay within our homes and connect less with our neighbors, and from that came many of the later problems.

Now, most people don't belong to a community in any meaningful sense. They have no community obligations, no community service, no values beyond the law, and no sense of connection to others through shared goals. There is only the individual, or the individual family.

And because of this, there would be no public support for prioritizing societal benefits. You’d have to stage a coup to force it on people. So, I don’t see it happening.

“Alternative entrepreneurialism” is a term you use often.

Yes, it’s about reclaiming entrepreneurialism and returning to its original meaning: venturing out to discover and create. Four beliefs underpin the Alternative Entrepreneurialism manifesto:

1. Our talents are gifts, and it’s our duty to share them with the world in pursuit of valuable goals.

2. Happiness comes from a sense of connectedness and contribution to our community and planet, alongside the open expression of our passions and talents.

3. The concept of a work self and a non-work self, along with overspecialization, is modern, harmful, limiting, and unsustainable.

4. We have the right to be compensated for expressing our gifts, but exploitation and greed harm our peace of mind and our communities.

As a result, there are key differences between conventional and alternative entrepreneurs. An alternative entrepreneur:

• Delivers a social, community, human, or environmental benefit

• Enjoys a work life based on their passions and values

• Adopts a portfolio approach to talent expression and income generation

• Rejects old models of greed, exploitation, and control

A lot of what we do in The Society of Alternative Entrepreneurs is use members' experiences and insights to create frameworks and pathways others can follow in a shorter time frame. But it’s never going to be quick. Our manifesto goes deeper into this.

Can anyone apply alternative entrepreneurialism to their lives?

Yes. We talk about 12 focus areas that need to be worked through first, and from all our research with members, we know this process typically takes 3-4 years. While our resources aim to reduce this time, it’s still not a quick fix because it involves undoing trauma from toxic workplaces.

The 12 focus areas are:

Section One: Reprogramming the Mind

• Healing from trauma and toxic workplaces

• Banishing ego and redefining identity

• Changing your relationship with money

• Self-reflection and self-awareness building

Section Two: Rediscovering Passion and Courage

• Unleashing creativity

• Learning new skills

• Redefining self-care as a life fully lived

• Intentional relationships

Section Three: Centering Around Your Talents and Values

• The passion and values audit tool

• Centering around your values

Section Four: Lived Experiments

• Financial downsizing

• Multiple income streams

Ultimately, it’s about examining inherited narratives and rebuilding new frameworks and relationships.

How can one turn disillusionment into a productive force?

First, you need to heal from your work and career trauma. Whether it’s a layoff, decades of low-level sexual or racial harassment, or simply the trauma of being chronically undervalued and questioned about your competence and motivation, you need to address that.

I talk to a lot of people in this space, and what happens when you don’t deal with the trauma is that you go back for more. You try to heal your wounds by proving yourself again on the same battlefield. But really, you need to leave the war.

Maybe it would help to think of this not as disillusionment, but as enlightenment. It’s about recognizing that not just your boss, or his boss, and your last boss, and her boss, were all idiots—but that the fundamental beliefs driving this behavior have no evidence and are easily disproved.

When you’re enlightened, not disillusioned, you gain an incredibly powerful fervor and capacity to take action.

We were born into a culture that demonises idleness. Do you think the value of non-productivity could ever gain meaningful traction on a larger scale?

I’m not sure I agree with this. As someone who has no car but cycles or walks everywhere, including to a launderette six miles away, and who has to walk to do the washing up or even go to the toilet, I seem to be quite unusual.

I think we valorise idleness: get a car, buy domestic appliances, use work hacks to look productive, throw things out and buy new instead of fixing them, buy what we could make or grow, order takeaway. Idleness is the capitalist dream.

I’m very pro-productivity. But productivity, to me, is using your body in space, creating things, and developing ideas with others. Making money beyond what’s needed to live isn’t productive because money is dead; it’s inert. Rest is important, but the concept of work life in The Society is different. Instead of splitting ourselves into 'real but inactive' selves and 'non-real but active' selves and trying to “balance” them, we exist in constant pursuit of our passions, applying our talents toward goals that truly matter.

This means we don’t need rest in the usual sense, because we aren’t pushing ourselves to exhaustion or trying to exist in environments where we don’t naturally thrive.

Something like universal basic income comes to mind…

Yes, this will certainly come. But it will come too late, after many who can’t find the high-paying jobs they’ve built their lives and identities around are forced into work that doesn’t match their talents or passions.

But to me, the question isn’t aligned with my thinking. The goal isn’t to quit your job to be idle or not work. The goal is to quit a job where your assumed talents (what are commonly known as skills) are used in service of goals and values you find morally repugnant. Then, you can use your real talents in service of communities, others, and the planet.

Universal income won’t lead to people doing great things because they haven’t realised that work isn’t a chore but a joy.

Recently, you wrote, “When we quit these purposeless jobs for valueless organisations and clueless bosses, it’s not because we are lazy or unambitious or don't make the mark but because our dreams are bigger than their tiny minds can even conceive.” Why is ambition so often confined to conventional definitions of success?

Because after the age of four, we stop allowing people to judge their own success. From the age of five, teachers award marks to students, teaching us early on that success is only real if it’s externally recognised and judged. Making ourselves happy or doing things that bring us joy—especially if they are kind or meaningful—don’t earn marks or certificates, so they get categorized as ‘play’ or ‘hobbies.’ As a result, ambition becomes linked to success in socially approved tasks, judged by others.

We then quickly discourage children who express ambitions in creative or socially motivated areas, labeling them as unrealistic, too difficult, or reliant on luck. So, children learn to stop pursuing those dreams. Finally, we tell them that accumulating worldly achievements will increase their chances of finding sexual partners and reproducing. And that’s incredibly powerful during teenage years.

There's this passage in one of my favourite short stories that, right after I read it, I was, like, yes. Damn it, yes! I think about it constantly: "Look at this," Stephen said, stomping heavily on one of the newly fastened boards. "Fuckin', I've got clients I've been working with ten years, and what've I done for them? I don't know. But spend two hours banging nails, you got something to stand on, man. Real progress. This is what I oughta do. Come out here. Live on a fuckin' hill."

Yes. Using our bodies and hands is what we’ve evolved to do. We’re not designed to spend hours indoors, immobile, using only our brains. It’s harmful to us.

I often reflect on what my mind and body have evolved to do. And I try to honor that. Who hasn’t experienced the mesmerising, calming effect of a log fire? There’s a reason for that! Or the joy of a spring walk? It’s the same with making or doing anything by hand.

We’ve created a bourgeois distinction between work of the mind (which is high status) and work of the body (which is low status).

We all feel time-starved, so we automate everything, using gadgets or machines to get through our daily tasks. But what do we do with the time we’ve saved? We scroll on our phones for two hours a day, watch TV for another couple.

At the very least, learn to knit. Bake a cake once a week. Pick up the guitar for a few minutes every day.

Have you heard from others inspired by your lead to seek an alternative future?

Yes. When I posted about quitting, that post got 12k likes, 1,000 comments, and another 1,000 DMs from people who were too scared to comment publicly (which says everything about the performative nature of LinkedIn). Because I wanted everyone in my DMs to be able to connect, I founded Unplugged Ambition, which has grown into The Society for Alternative Entrepreneurs over the past eight months.

But I wouldn’t say people are following my lead. They’re on their own paths, and some are further along than I am on mine.

On a daily basis through The Society, I speak with people who are downsizing and creating new ventures that improve the world. And without exception, these are people who held incredibly senior roles in business. So there’s a talent drain happening, and frankly, the people you see on LinkedIn complaining about a lack of jobs were never the best talents—they just talk the loudest.

If you had to distill everything you’ve learned from this journey into one piece of advice for someone feeling stuck in their current life, what would it be?

Your true talents come so effortlessly to you that you likely underestimate their value to others. Your true passions are best discovered by reflecting on what brought you joy as a child.

You’ve been taught many things about the world that aren’t true, probably by people who loved you but simply didn’t know any better.

Start appreciating the gifts you have. When you do, you’ll want to put them to work for worthwhile goals—goals that don’t revolve around making rich white men richer. Your project doesn’t need to be huge or world-changing. In fact, it’s beautiful precisely because it’s small.

To do anything else is really a waste of a life.

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