How a Deck of Tarot Cards Became Central to My Business Decisions Pulling a tarot card offers something real and tangible.
This story appears in the November 2024 issue of Entrepreneur. Subscribe »
I worked the same job for 19 years. I hated it, but it paid the bills. Then, in 2017, I entertained an exciting but terrifying question: Could I be an entrepreneur? I wasn't sure, so I needed something that felt like a guarantee. I searched for signs that would feel like a big, clear "yes!"
Instead, what I found was a tarot card deck.
I wasn't especially interested in tarot, but I spotted it in a store and was desperate for answers. So I bought the deck. Maybe this could…tell my future or something? I quickly learned that tarot does not, in fact, make predictions. Instead, it does something real and actually valuable: It prompts questions.
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I'd pull a card. It would have, say, a bear on it. (This was an "animal spirit" deck.) The bear would represent things like new beginnings, growth, and growing pains — which would prompt me to think more deeply about my needs, and pull me out of whatever granular worry I had that day. I started to realize something critical: There was no single answer to my question, and no way to guarantee future success. Instead, I just needed to ask: "What will serve me and the situation the best right now?" That allowed me to trust myself. I may not have had all the answers for my life, but I knew my needs now. And I needed change.
By the fall of 2017, I finally took that leap. I quit my day job, started a podcast production company, and now also run a coaching business. Each day, with each big challenge or hard decision, I rely upon the insight I gained from those tarot cards: There is no such thing as a perfect answer. But there is such a thing as an answer that feels right to you because it came from your gut. It's an exercise in self-trust. I lacked that after 19 years of being an employee, but I found it once I had to rely on myself.
I don't need a tarot deck to know this, but I bought four more decks anyway. They sit on a table in my office. And every time I embark upon something new, I know that bear card is waiting for me. It won't have the answers. But that's fine; I do.
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