Eight years ago today, I launched my career as a Passion Catalyst.
It wasn't that glorious of a launch, really. More of a dribble. But I
committed to it, took a step, and quickly discovered how amazing it
felt to actually be doing work you're meant to do.
For years
prior to discovering my Passion Catalyst work I was what I describe as
a Professional Malcontent. I had been on a path I wasn't meant for,
chasing a dream that in the end really didn't mean all that much to me.
And I was unhappy with it.
Fast track to mediocrity
I
studied business in school, with a focus on marketing and international
business. Coming out of school I saw myself as a mover and a shaker,
convinced that I was going to climb the corporate ladder to the top.
CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Face on the cover of Fortune magazine.
All of that.
But my rocket ride to the top never did manifest.
I kept moving through a series of jobs, growing bored and leaving or
"being given the opportunity to seek other opportunities" (that is to
say, canned).
One day, looking in the mirror, I had an epiphany
of sorts. "You're on the fast track all right," I said to myself, "but
it's not the fast track to the top. It's the fast track to becoming Dilbert. It's the fast track to becoming bitter, disillusioned, and stuck."
I knew something had to change. I just didn't know what, or how.
The light bulb moment
By
early 2001 I had been treading water for a couple years as a
self-employed marketing consultant focused on the tech industry. When
the dot com implosion came, it was just the catalyst I needed. I was
suddenly self-unemployed, with no potential business on the horizon.
Trying
to drum up new business, I had a bazillion coffees or so with various
contacts from the tech industry here in Seattle. It was during one of
these conversations that the light bulb about my Passion Catalyst work
finally came on.
After talking business for a bit, the
conversation turned to a company he wanted to start based on a passion
of his. It was his dream. We talked about that for an hour, and by the
end of the conversation he was vibrating with excitement. "I can't go
back to work now, Curt!" he said, half in jest. His brain was on fire
with new ideas, new possibilities, new ways of seeing things that he
hadn't seen before.
Later that day I thought, "What is that?
Because that happens to me all the time!" Looking back, I saw it happen
over and over where people would come out of conversations with me
completely lit up with new ideas, perspectives, and possibilities.
"Hmmmm...," I thought, "maybe this has some value." A potential way to make some money, perhaps?
What exactly is it that I do?
There was just one problem - I didn't actually know what
I did. It just happened naturally. I didn't have a conscious approach
or methodology. Hard to monetize something you're not sure how to
replicate.
I can see now that it was the combination of two main
things. First, I'm naturally curious, so I ask a lot of questions. And
in answering my questions, people would find insights they didn't
realize were there.
Second, my brain is an idea-machine when it
listens to someone else talk. So I would always be lobbing out ideas,
or alternative possibilities, or ways to approach things. Some of them
were just right, while others sparked still other ideas from the person
I was talking to.
But at the time I didn't see that. So instead I
talked about it, trying to figure it out. Ultimately I realized that it
had to be more than a one-time conversation for people to get long-term
value out of it.
"Aha!" I thought. "I can be a coach."
After
a couple months of exploring it, I realized that I can - and often do -
talk a good idea to death. If I was going to do anything with this one,
I had to jump in and get started.
The guinea pig
For
me, jumping in and getting started meant finding a guinea pig client.
As luck would have it, another of the people I had connected with in my
schmooze-a-thon looking for new consulting business was at a career
crossroads, and open to testing the waters with me.
Eight years
ago today, I took a risk and jumped into the unknown. Eight years ago
today, I had my first coaching session with that guinea pig client.
After
we wrapped up that first session I remember thinking, "I don't need a
guinea pig. This is who I am! This is what I do!" I had been nervous
and uncertain before, but came away with a feeling of confidence that
comes when you find your groove.
--
Time for a career change? Launch it with...
The Occupational Adventure Guide:
A Travel Guide to the Career of Your Dreams
--
by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst
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