LA is the city of people quitting their dreams and still coming out on top

Ask anyone what comes to mind when they think of Los Angeles, and they’ll probably say something about people chasing their dreams.But the real virtue of this city might be our willingness to let people give them up. While other places may see a change in direction as the consequence of failure, Los Angeles sees reinvention.

It’s what happens when you live with enough openness to let life surprise you.And I can’t imagine any other way to live. Growing up in the Midwest, I was always taught that successful people have a plan for their lives.

At some point, I started hearing a lot about the “five-year plan.” Or even more terrifying, the 10-year plan.The biggest news, opinion and culture shaping California right now.

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Never miss a story Both strike me as an unsettling number of years over which to presume you have any control.But I didn’t see many alternatives to this mindset until I moved here nine years ago and started seeing them everywhere. Allow me to tell a very LA story. This year my gym closed.It was a special place, a small business run by a performance coach who was also a DJ, and he had a DJ booth set up in the gym.

It had a cult following of people who were disappointed by the closure.When I saw him at an event, I asked what happened.Leaning against a bar on a hotel rooftop, he sipped a drink and sighed theatrically.

“Mary, do you know how much work it is to run a business?”While my midwestern mind assumed the gym was failing, the truth was just that he was tired of running it. At 40, he decided he would rather be a DJ for a while. I told you it was a very LA story. In the suburbs of Chicago where I grew up, people were a lot less likely to become a DJ at any age.Many people chose a career and stuck with it.

My brother continues to work at the same company where he started after...