From the Zoo to the Jungle

In my last piece, Ground Up, I spoke about the journey of stripping back and rebuilding from a place of limitation. But today, I want to zoom in on a different truth I’ve been wrestling with, what it really means to step out of the zoo and into the jungle.

A stable job with a stable salary is often celebrated as the definition of security. It pays the bills, provides predictability, and cushions you against uncertainty. But in many ways, it also becomes a cage. The bars aren’t visible, but they’re there. The monthly paycheck can quietly domesticate you. It conditions you to expect safety, to plan only within the confines of what’s “guaranteed.” It feeds you, yes, but it also tames you.

When you’re in the zoo, meals come on schedule. You don’t have to sharpen your claws. You don’t have to hunt. You don’t have to imagine beyond the next month’s salary. For a creative, this is the beginning of a slow death. That killer instinct, the hunger to create, to innovate, to chase ideas without certainty, weakens over time. You start to live a riskless life, and the less risk you take, the smaller your chances of winning big, of stumbling into the extraordinary.

The jungle is different. The jungle has no guarantees. It is unpredictable, ruthless, and exhilarating. As a freelancer, consultant, or entrepreneur, you don’t sit around waiting for the next meal, you hunt for it. The edge becomes your natural habitat. You take risks, not because they are safe, but because standing still guarantees starvation. Over here, the rules are simple, the more you hunt, the more you eat.

Yes, the jungle is harder. The jungle is lonelier. But it’s also where freedom lives. Out here, you’re not confined to routine or the illusion of security. Out here, you can stumble on opportunities you would never see from inside the zoo. You can build, lose, rebuild, and ultimately sharpen instincts that make you unbreakable.

If the zoo gives you comfort, the jungle gives you power. And power, in the long run, is the only real security there is.