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Something Worth SharingThe Real Career Path
We are just preparing for another of our children to fly off on a next adventure; the timing collides with our youngest child also finishing full-time education. These things have led to a fair amount of discussion in our house about futures and plans. In our daughter’s case, her school have gone to great lengths to steer her in a certain direction - that of university, something she is adamant is not her chosen path. It seems to me that our society and communities are built on people being strongly encouraged to make choices and stick to them without any real experience or knowledge. I personally remember having to explain to teachers at school what my ideal career was along with my further education plan. I was 18 years old and what on earth did I know? (perhaps a little more than the batsh*t crazy software they used as ‘careers advice’!). Well, I ended up stumbling into a “temporary” job in our family’s business that quickly turned into a 16 year career that saw me eventually take over the company and do a Management Buy Out. Then, in 2009 I heartbreakingly closed that business due to the recession - this saw me launch my first ‘official’ business*; working with other people’s family businesses. As part of that, I threw myself into research and continuing to develop a methodology that later became The GLAS Method®. The research I did was often recorded visually, this was to end up becoming VisualSynopsis.com. These visuals have been spread across the globe and opened up endless opportunities. The point is, none of my real career path could have been a) known by me when I was at school, b) didn’t exist as a ‘career’, and c) would have been impossible without the series of bizarre dots I’ve managed to connect together - as Steve Jobs once said. Many entrepreneurs will share similar stories of their career path being non-linear, ever-changing, and full of ups and downs, much resilience and many failures. Whatever you’re doing now, if you love it - great! But, it’s likely that you won’t always be doing it, and you certainly don’t have to if you don’t want to! *I always say that I started my first business when I was 10, followed by another two before the age of 16.
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