write one's own ticket

present singular third person writes one's own ticket · participle present writing one's own ticket · past wrote one's own ticket · participle past written one's own ticket · alternative write one's ticket

1. idiomaticTo be empowered to choose whichever job, financial arrangement, or course of action one desires.

   Mr. DeChadenedes said that any one wishing to back the Republican candidate could write his own ticket and name his own price.

   1925 November 3, “Offers of 15 to 1 on Walker Go Begging”, in New York Times, page 2

   2 more examples

   Parker figured that in the interim, the record companies would sell out their stock of Elvis' recordings, and that the King could write his own ticket when he returned, in both the recording and the film industries. Parker was right.

   2002 August 12, Lee Siegel, “Long Live the King”, in Time

   “If you were a software engineer five years ago, you could kind of write your ticket,” says Mike Robbins, an executive coach who has worked with companies like Google, Microsoft, Salesforce and Airbnb.

   2026 February 17, Arielle Pardes, quoting Mike Robbins, “12-hour days, no weekends: the anxiety driving AI’s brutal work culture is a warning for all of us”, in The Guardian, →ISSN