No job is forever. It’s a fact that you will ultimately face a career change. Why not prepare for it now?
My friend Tony Bordo was working on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade when his job was eliminated. A lifelong fitness enthusiast, Tony decided to make his passion his profession and launched Tony Bordo Fitness. He’s a personal trainer who works with people in their homes to craft custom fitness formulae that fits their unique situations. He built a stellar reputation, generating a ton of referrals, and now can pick and choose who his clients will be.
Eric Becher was one of my Ann Arbor Pioneer High School band buddies. He earned national recognition as the director of the University of Michigan Marching Band. Realizing that his budget came nowhere near meeting the needs of the organization, he fell into the fundraising space. When it came time to leave the University, Eric leveraged that skill set to create a second life in the Advancement business. He now runs his own firm, Vavarde, which helps non-profits build donor relationships that help them meet their business objectives.
Whatever you are doing today, there is no better time than right now to be thinking about your next chapter. Need some help, brainstorming? Check out Nick Loper’s Side Hustle Nation website and podcast. His Side Hustle show features over 300 interviews with people who found a niche and turned it into an income stream. It’s a great resource for your own idea generation.
And if staying in the corporate space is still your thing, begin now to build mutually beneficial relationships with people in parallel worlds. You may find your next job will come to you.
Begin with my favorite question: “What would you do if you were working for love and not for money?”
That level of commitment is crucial, because whatever you decide to do next will take time, will come with a lot of bumps in the road and will test your resolve.
It’s worth the work. Many people I know have found true gold at the end of the rainbow picture they began to paint in their imagination. Start visualizing your Plan B now.
“We become what we think about,” as Earl Nightingale used to say.
What your mind can conceive and believe, you will achieve.
