The Pathless Path with Paul Millerd

At each professional crossroad, Nina Simon has made the choice most likely to disappoint her mother. She left an electrical engineering job at NASA to design spy museum exhibits, said goodbye to a museum directorship to start a global movement for more inclusive cultural organizations, and now has put down her CEO hat to write crime fiction. Her first novel, Mother-Daughter Murder Night, will be published in 2023 by William Morrow. Nina lives off the grid in the Santa Cruz mountains with 20 people, 16 chickens, 2 trampolines, and 1 zipline.

We talk about:
  • Leaving her dream job
  • Living in an intentional "off the grid" community
  • What she learned from her ambitious days as a museum industry leader
  • Marriage & kids on an unconventional path
  • Writing her novel
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TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Audio intro
0:12 Introduction
1:37 The scripts Nina grew up with
4:43 Did Nina see herself as creative growing up?
5:39 Nina's education and why she hated her dream job at NASA
12:17 Fitting your life into your job vs fitting your job into your life
14:39 Nina's approach to money, building a marriage that supports entrepreneurship
19:55 Writing books
27:39 Giving herself a permission
33:17 Making choices that are not "the right choice"
38:37 The non-traditional paths and having kids
46:08 Reinventing yourself, knowing when to leave
52:42 Constructing backward narratives about our lives

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Creators & Guests

Guest
Nina Simon
I write stories about strong women. MOTHER-DAUGHTER MURDER NIGHT coming Sep 2023 from @WmMorrowBooks(repped by @hellegilly)

What is The Pathless Path with Paul Millerd?

The Pathless Path is hosted by Paul Millerd - a writer, creator, and consultant. He has conversations with freelancers, self-employed entrepreneurs, creators, and vagabonds who share their perspectives on their relationship with work, burnout, bootstrapping, indie hacking, remote work, reinvention, creativity, sabbaticals, leisure, self-employment, unconventional living, and digital nomadism. Past guests include Ali Abdaal, Russ Roberts, Kevin Kelly, Khe Hy, David Senra, Derek Sivers, Joe Hudson, Luke Burgis, Ben Hunt, Dan Vassallo, Steph Smith, Alex Pang, Visakan Veerasamy, Michael Ashcroft, Kyla Scalon, Trung Phan, Justin Welch, and more.