In 2012 I published a (very ugly looking) Euler diagram on my former blog (which was a desolate place at that time; I think the only person who read every post was my mom).

I found the old chart among my files, prettified it and put in on Facebook in April 2014. Someone slapped it on Instagram in black and white, where Tiffany Chan found it and posted it via Shanti Ughanda in September. Just a few weeks later the diagram had been shared over 26,000 times…. People have been using it as a post card motive, having discussions, creating videos and even printing t-shirts.

I am still blown away by the power of the Internet and how a little image bobs along from one device to another creating this amazing chain reaction.

Based on countless comments I created an extended version of the chart.

This is the visual illustration of my desired career paradigm. I do not see this as a destination or the ‘right’ way of doing business.

It is my truth at the moment (and perhaps it will change). I use this as a tool for self-reflection that combines work ideal and earthly livelihood.

I left ‘you are paid for it’ in there on purpose, despite the complaints. While I agree that work is not about the money I am fascinated by the crazy divide.

If we stereotype there are two groups:

Inside the box: People chasing better pay checks who ‘do what they have to do’ and seem to have come to terms with constraining their bliss to weekends and holidays. They try to fill the void of meaning with things and distractions. They buy into the Bullshit that ‘work is hard’ and that they are ‘too small to make a difference’.

Outside the box: holistic and social workers, meaning-chasers. The pendulum swinging to the other side. They seek to make a difference and change the world by changing themselves. But often times they are chronically broke and move much less than they could. They have turned their back on the system, hereby stunting their own ability to receive. I wrote more about this here.

To change the way business works we need to change the way we see business.

Doing this requires thinking along the lines of the box (thank you Seth Godin). To me this means using what we have to make something better. Working with the fear rather than pretending it’s not there (which just makes it grow bigger).

I am writing a book based on this diagram. If you would like to share your thoughts send me an email: connect@meetanais.com. We were getting tired of moderating comments so we’ve closed those.

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Where did this diagram come from?

My chart was a modified version of Ms Dorothy’s work in her post “Reflecting on What I Do”. She was inspired by Aristotle Bancale who published his graph on G+ and seems to have been inspired by Simon Kemp‘s version of Bud Caddell‘s 3-circle Venn diagram…

In other words, this information is nothing new. Countless people all over the globe are finding ways of understanding and illustrating work that is not just based on an exchange of payment and life energy.

Is this a Venn or a Euler diagram?

It is a Venn diagram, since a Euler requires for all the fields to overlap… I experimented with creating a venn diagram but decided to favour clarity over comprehensiveness.

Here are my sketches. See the difference?