Driven by a Dream: What My Minibus Fantasy Taught Me About Purpose

Caption: A real photo (not AI-ed) taken at HKUST by a kind passerby. November 2019.

Five years ago, while feeling lost and confused about my career, I found camaraderie one day while chatting with a career coach.

“I thought I wanted to be a bus driver when I grew up,” he said.

“Me too!” My eyes lit up.

Ok, my bus driving fantasies began not while “growing up,” but after moving to Hong Kong in 2016. Before I lived on my current car-less island, my daily commute involved either a double-decker bus or a green minibus — an extended van with 16–19 seats, green because of its green top (there are red-top minibuses too; they run by a different set of rules).

“Why did you want to be a bus driver?” I asked the coach — a man in his mid-fifties, father of two adult children, and former internal auditor at one of the big firms (think Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, Manulife, etc.). By this point, we had been chatting for at least two hours.

“I thought it would be really great to open the door, see who comes in, greet them, welcome them onto my bus, maybe chat with them,” he said, acting out the motion of pulling the lever to open the door and looking at who comes in.

Fascinating, I thought. He sounded like he wanted to know his neighbors and be a friendly one. That sounded nice — but small talk was not the purpose of my minibus fantasy.

“What appeals to you about being a bus driver?” he asked me.

“I also love driving,” I added, imagining the thrill of operating an all-manual-transmission eight-tonne vehicle on the single-lane, bendy roads between villages of Hong Kong’s New Territories. I love feeling competent.

Looking back on this moment, it might seem like I missed an opportunity. It was 2020, and I was blissfully — sometimes painfully — unemployed. My career had no hindrances for taking any direction, as long as it didn’t require air travel during the pandemic. I could have pursued bus-driver training.

Today, in 2025, I am not a minibus driver, but my bus-driving fantasy and my current work share a theme: I love helping others in their missions.

There are uncountable missions to support — like excelling in school, moving abroad, changing jobs, completing a Ph.D., getting more organized, living healthier, setting up a new business, adopting a child, coping with grief, being a good friend, being a good partner, having good family relationships, being a calmer and more confident person, and then some.

Of course, there are missions I don’t support — and I don’t have to let those people onto my metaphorical career minibus, nor do I board theirs.

Everyone I work with is doing something to make the world a better place in some way, however small, and it starts with taking care of their own mission of becoming the person they want to be. I love helping them figure that out and build their truckload of skills, strategy, and relationships that move them forward.

Simultaneously, each person hopping on and off my metaphorical minibus brings presence and stories that teach me something, inspiring me to keep cultivating clarity and confidence in my own journey as an explorer and guide. I become a better driver of my own life thanks to them.

I’m grateful that I’m not a minibus driver right now. Knowing what I know about the industry and driving in Hong Kong, that’s not the right road for me, but I let the fantasy, shared with another career coach, keep me smiling… and insisting on trying public transport each time we visit a new place.