First name / ,,
Careers are not as linear as they used to be.
The other night I attended a school fundraiser for my kids' public elementary school. It’s always a full-circle, pinch-me moment when I attend one of these events since I was on the NYC Department of Education team that helped start the school 10+ years ago!
At the time, my first child wasn’t even a glimmer, as they say, (wink wink), and by the time the first Quality Review of the school came around, I was pregnant and waddled around the newly-opened halls with him in my belly. “This kid will go here,” I thought to myself as I talked to parents, with tears in their eyes, about how much they loved it there. Now, 11 years later, I drop off and pick up my kids at the door of that thriving school every day.
Since then, I’ve taught leadership at Columbia and we’ve opened a chain of pizzerias. I’ve coached principals and gone back into school-based positions. I've helped countless new parents through the first months of parenthood and to navigate the public school system. I
founded a Jewish community called B'nai Brooklyn, and even wrote a
children's book!
Standing at the fundraiser on Friday night, with all the success of that project apparent, it struck me how I couldn’t have connected the dots from back then to now. I couldn't have predicted I'd be a life and business coach because I hadn't yet encountered the life-changing experience of working
with one.
It seems that in my parents’ generation, people would choose a career, study for it, train for it, practice for years and years and years, and then retire. Now it’s way more common for people to study and practice one thing and then move to another; or to have a side project or two.
It’s possible I’m seeing it in a certain way because I’m engrained in so many entrepreneurial communities, something I really love.
And for people in the camp of climbing the ladder of the same thing for years and years, I say, good for you! We need highly trained/practiced/skilled educators and doctors, for example.
So I’m not suggesting everyone quit their day job and start a business, BUT if there's a class that you’ve been wanting to take, a project you want to dabble in, or an organization you want to volunteer for…
Maybe it's time to jump right in before you have the chance to plan every detail out and connect the dots. Besides, where's the fun in that?
