Take Charge Of Your Career

While I was looking for ideas on how to better support my clients to pursue their meaningful careers, I found this book roadmap (https://www.roadtripnation.com).

For a decade, the authors had traveled around the world interviewing accomplished individuals to learn how they build their meaningful lives.

Most of those fulfilled individuals do not start with a plan to do what they are doing. They followed their interests and their heart. They have a specific purpose to do what matters to them most. Their WHY or Foundation as described in the book.

MY ROADTRIP

I take the opportunity to reflect on my journey. Using the findings from the Roadtrip Nation research, I have identified my two main career interests i.e. entrepreneurship and non-profit organization. I further deep dive into discovering WHY I have these interests.

I realized I had accumulated a wealth of business experiences as a global executive. During this journey, I was introduced to some non-profit organizations. I had noted many non-profit organizations are struggling without professional expertise in managing their organization while doing a good cause.

I wanted to help and the best way is to share my experiences and to teach and mentor those leaders leveraging what I know.

The foundation or my WHY is I found great joy in helping others to be successful.

I believe I found my “true north” if I can mentor/ teach the non-profit organization leaders to run their organization more effectively so that they can help more people towards their cause.

MY MEANINGFUL CAREER

I am a chartered accountant by training. I had a strong interest in business as I grew up helping my grandmother running her mini supermarket since I was still in primary school. I found joy in serving the customers helping them looking for the stuff they want, packing them properly so that they can bring it home without damaging the products.

My business interest steered me towards moving from accounting to a business career. I was promoted to start and/or manage businesses across different countries for two global companies. This is where I honed my entrepreneurship and leadership skills. I love what I do but there is still something missing in my heart.

I am still employed and bound by the 9 to 5 job and the constraint by a large organization.

During my 20 years as a senior corporate executive, I had the opportunity to develop my team members and also contributed my knowledge in coaching the leaders from the non-profit organization.

I felt I am blessed to have a smooth career journey and I am dedicated to supporting them to build a meaningful organization. I felt fulfilled whenever I mentor and teach and had helped the other person to progress in his/her life or career.

However, as a corporate leader, I miss the freedom to do what I believe is right. I wanted to become an entrepreneur to take control of my destiny.

I decided to leave my comfortable corporate job to start my consulting and coaching business. In this new capacity, I can embark on a true entrepreneurship journey while supporting the non-profit organization and doing what I truly love i.e. coaching.

DISCOVER YOUR PATH

I started with a traditional path of gearing up to be an accountant as this was a secured job. I was influenced by family relatives that this is the right path for me. I am kept in a “container” and working towards the dream of others.

I am glad I discovered my interest and steered myself towards MY path.

I am currently a full-time professional coach running a few businesses teaching and coaching others to improve their leadership and entrepreneurship. I am also actively coaching leaders from a non-profit organization to strengthen their capability so that they can do good to help more people.

I am living a meaningful life working on what I enjoy i.e. coaching and mentoring others to help them achieve their meaningful career and lives.

I hope I had inspired you to discover your path.

Home

Life is about finding the intersection of what you really, really love with what you’re really, really good at. As simple as it sounds, it’s really not that easy to find.

For those who are thinkiing about making a career change, here are a few tips I hope you consider.

First, there’s three things to think about before you’re ready to move on.

Number one: professional life is about learning. If you’re not even interested in learning anymore, that’s a huge red flag that there might not be a future for you in that industry.

Number two: career changes are often gut-driven. If you constantly have sleepless nights where you’re wide awake staring at the ceiling thinking, “Oh, man. I can’t live with myself if I never try to make this change or if I don’t even actually investigate it,” then trust your gut.

It might be time for that career change. On the flip side, one reason to not move on is short-term pain. If you don’t like your boss or people at the office are grating on you, that’s actually not a good reason to absolutely change your career, because when you do change a career, you generally have to start from the bottom, and you’ll probably feel a lot of short-term pain, whether it’s through a lack of salary or lack of a title.

Pain at any job is inevitable. So now you’re convinced that it’s time to change your career. Then there are three things to do immediately. First: network, network, network. No one ever builds a career without a good mentor or a good support network.

What I mean by networking is getting all the great advice that you can possibly get. Technology has made it so simple to reach out to new people to say, “Hey, I’m thinking about making a career change.

Do you have just five minutes to chat with me?” That passion and that hunger and that ability to be a sponge really attract awesome mentors and people willing to give you their time to give you some good advice.

So go out there and meet new people. The second thing you need to do immediately shores up your finances. The reality is, when you change your career, you’ll either start with a job with a lower title or lower pay or maybe even no pay, especially if you’re starting your own business.

So going out there and making sure your finances are in order to make the transition less painful is really, really important. For me personally, as I made the transition from being an attorney over to a video game creator, I wanted to have at least six to 12 months of personal runway in the bank.

Six to 12 months might not be the right number for you, but be honest with yourself on what that number should be. Number three, if you’re not ready to make the full jump right at this moment, then get your side hustle on.

Side hustles could be anything from volunteering with an organization that’s in the new industry you want to go into, could be starting your business part-time on the weekends. It’s a free way to get a taste to see if you really love something.

So you’re ready to make the move or maybe you already made the move. Here are three things you should think about doing, right now.

One: do not — I repeat — do not burn bridges. You spent years building those bridges, why burn them now? The world is such a small place, especially with all these online platforms, that, believe me, you will see these people again and probably in the most inopportune times.

Number two: take stock of what you’ve learned in your previous career or careers. Most likely, a lot of those things are really applicable to your new job and your new career, whether it’s interacting with people, playing on a team or dealing with jerks and assholes.

All those things are really universally applicable. You’ll find jerks no matter what industry you’re in; no one’s immune to it, everyone’s got to figure it out, and you probably know how to do it already.

Lastly, when you start your new job, you’re going to be nervous. But don’t worry, take a deep breath, because this is what I want to tell you: you’re part of a new team now, and everyone around you is rooting for your success, because your success is their success.

So welcome to your new career.