|
Hello Reader, I was on my walk today and it occurred to me that I've pursued a business idea every decade since I graduated college:
So why didn't I stick with the earlier businesses? On a practical level, they never made the same amount of money I made in my job. It was always a lot easier for me to excel in my corporate roles, even saying 'no' to promotions multiple times in my career. I don't believe in doing something you don't enjoy simply for more money and bigger titles because you'll inevitably end up not performing and ruin your reputation and personal brand in the process. The more important reason why I 'gave up' on these earlier businesses was because I found out they weren't what I wanted.
No amount of research prepares you for actually doing the thing. Coaching on the other hand, is something I've been unconsciously doing over my past 20-year career in HR. 2 years ago, I started taking more conscious steps to get the qualifications and certifications to build a business around this. As you can see, building my business has been a long journey. I can take the negative view and tell myself I'm a failure or that it's too late for me. Or I can tell a different story: That during those 30 years, I kept my dream alive even as I was raising 2 awesome kids and growing a career that enabled us to travel, invest, provide for our kids and parents, and live a pretty good life. Now that the kids are older, I have more time to ramp up my business again. Building a business and transforming your dream into reality takes time and stamina. Sometimes, you have to deal with other more important priorities in your life and put your dreams on hold. I believe this doesn't set you back. Instead, these experiences shape you into the person you need to be in order to have the life you want. I never believed I was capable to create the results I wanted before. I was introverted, timid and had low self-esteem. But life threw many tough curveballs my way these past 30 years that enabled me to gather evidence that I was capable of making things work despite everything that happened. If you're feeling like it's too late for you, or like you've failed, take this as the message you needed to hear today: This experience is preparing you to become the person you need to be to create the result you want. Take the next most logical and obvious step in front of you right now and keep going. You will figure it out and you can make it work. Have a great Sunday and week ahead! Sharon P.S. Helping women navigate challenges in their career is what I specialize in. Reply to this email and let me know your #1 challenge right now that you need help with and let's create a plan to overcome it and create the outcome you want. |
Subscribe to receive my weekly newsletter, Career Redesigned, where I share insights on career security, building beyond a salary, and creating more choice in work and life from a HR insider's perspective.
Most people are taught to build their lives around one source of income. Go to school. Get a good job. Work hard. Stay loyal. And everything will work out. I believed that too. Then life taught me otherwise. My husband and I shut down a business and were left with a six-figure debt. I returned to corporate life to recover. Shortly after, I was laid off while I was the sole provider for my family. That experience changed how I think about work forever. Not because jobs are bad. I've spent...
Hello Reader, 🎧 Prefer listening? Apple Podcast | Spotify — I felt a little sick after making that payment. It was for a mastermind I’d been thinking about for months. And the next day, the doubts came almost immediately. What if it doesn’t work? What were you thinking? You could’ve used that money for the kids’ university. — This is something people don’t talk about enough. Making decisions about money when you’re responsible for more than just yourself. — I didn’t make this decision...
Hello Reader, Prefer to listen instead? 🎧 Listen to the episode here (This is the audio version of this week’s Career Design Notes.) There are many ways to build a career. You can: climb the corporate ladder stay and deepen in your role start a business build something on the side Most people don’t choose. They default. I didn’t. I chose to build a business while keeping my job. Not because it’s easy. But because the alternatives were unacceptable. I didn’t want: to depend on a single income...