Do you recall a particular moment in time that caused you to change the entire course of your life? I definitely do.
A long, long time ago, at least three careers ago, I worked for the State of
I suspect that
One beautiful summer day, I was coming back from having my lunch outside in the park. I distinctly remember the warmth of the sun still on my clothes and face when I stepped into an elevator with two other people I did not know, who were heading to a different floor than my mine. It was a man and a woman and they obviously knew each other. The woman exhaled deeply and leaned back against the wall of the elevator and said to her colleague “Thank God it’s Friday”. To which her colleague responded by saying “Yeah, but Monday is right around the corner ready to kick you in the ass!”
To say I was stunned is an understatement. That very day, I decided that I was going to get in action to change my destiny. To become anything other than an unhappy state employee, stuck in a “good” job with the “good” benefits.
This true story is the very foundation for this blog. I intend to explore issues concerning personal development, career search and planning, company politics, networking, strategies for getting ahead and for getting out of your “good” job in order to find a situation that is, in fact, truly GOOD. I want to be clear, I am not writing because I’ve done such a great job with my own career. In fact you will see that my career has meandered through several industries along the way with no apparent direction. I am not setting myself up as an expert. I am just curious about how one achieves career success and I am willing to write about my discoveries. The purpose of this blog is to offer a window into my own journey and to offer advice in areas that I have already uncovered, typically the hard way.
My moment of truth came in a very similar way… I was a supervisor / dealer at a poker room on the east coast of the US… great benefits… decent pay… not the greatest conditions (lots of profanity, little respect for women, long hours with no warning)… but had come to a point of respect with many of the high limit players and management so I was pretty secure and un-abused… basically coasting through my days.
There were several of us who tried to fight the negativity by holding “topic of the day” conversations during breaks… poetry… PBS specials… Business 2.0 magazine articles… anything happy and future reaching was fair game! It was a constant struggle not to spend our spare time re-hashing negative events.
Then one slow day I was dealing rather than supervising in the low limit area and a player fell over with a heart attack at the table next to me as I was going on break… the dealer at the table was new so I had the supervisor open a new table clear of the EMTs and move the game over to me so that I could keep everyone distracted… not something I hadn’t done about a dozen times before over the 7 years I had worked at the casino.
A new player sat down in the now empty 1 seat… and proceeded to swear at me for not moving the game faster… he was very vile and used several different derogatory terms towards my being female… in the background I could hear the EMT’s calling in to the hospital with the status of the player that had collapsed…
That was it… I was done… I asked to go home as soon as I was relieved from the table… I went straight home and got on the internet to learn about web design certification and signed up for a certification course at a local college… 7 months later I supervised my last tournament table and walked into the stormy life a e-commerce developer.
That was 3,019 days ago (but who is counting :-)!) and I have meandered all the way to Seattle where I am now a Product Manager for a niche software company you may have heard of… Microsoft.
I look forward to reading more about the acts of courage that others have shown on their path to living a life of not settling!
WOW! Nancy, that is quite an incredible story! I have often wondered if there is a “tree in the forrest” question to this kind of thing. What if I had taken a different elevator? What if you had called in sick that night? I guess it depends on your view of fate and the universe etc. and I am in no position to express any kind of authoritative opinion about that.
Thank you VERY MUCH for sharing your incredible story! Hopefully others will learn from our experiences and pay attention to their intuition when events like this happen to them.
Valerie
I am speaking as one of those people who hated to see you leave that good job with the good benefits. I am wondering how your life would have unfolded if you had kept that job. To be sure your life would probably not have been so exciting as your current situation but I think I recall that you used to work on setting up interviews with some influential people. Not too many people get to meet the Gov. of the Empire state. Could this have led to other assignments involving prople of national or even worldwide significance? Could you have built a reputation for yourself in the field that would cause you to be in demand everywhere? We never do get the answers to questions like this. I often wonder where I would be now if I hadn’t given up my job as Mgr. of a Sherwin Williams store in Salem Ma. to come back here to run your Grandfather’s store and then ultimately into teaching (Sherwin Williams had offered me the Boston Store to manage if I would stay with the firm). And so on it goes. What if I stayed on to run the city of Troy or if I stayed with The accounting firm of Urbach Khan and Werlin where I worked for a year while on Sabbatical from the college? I wonder about these things but I have never regretted any of my decisions. Hopefully, you never will either. Love, the old geezer.
Hi Dad,
You make a good point. I have wondered about the same thing. I have even wondered the other side, that is what if I got on a different elevator that day or bumped into someone I knew in the lobby of the building. Either way I am very thankful that I no longer work for the State. I was completely unfulfilled and unhappy. I saw this man as a vision of myself in the future and I just did not want to be him.
I’ve grown immensely since then. I met my wonderful husband, and I live in the most beautiful city. I achieved 2 advanced degrees and, of course, the CPA license - which I know makes you incredibly proud. my innermost soul forced me to leave and I am sooooo glad I listened.
Thanks for checking out my blog, you can subscribe via email if you want to know when I make new posts.
xoxo
Valerie
wow Valerie,
EXCellent website. Really inspiring and, dare I say it, fresh. I think I will forward it to a few people.
you and I met at GGU, although we only had one class together. I was very impressed by you, your attitude, your way of being (and continue to be) and would have liked to get to know you better.
I also, meandered many career paths until (accidentally) finding accounting. I really have enjoyed my time thus far and feel that the experiences of working for an airline, among other things, has helped me to prosper in CPA land.
P.S. I just got my CPA license and am currently studying to get the CFE.
I feel very fortunate to have found something that I enjoy and cannot imagine ever again doing something where “Monday is right around the corner ready to kick you in the ass!” Scratch that, I will do everything possible to never be in that situation and everything possible to help others to never be in that situation.
Many thanks for publishing this. You have a place to stay if you are ever in southern California.
Hi Gogi,
Of course I remember you! Congratulations on getting your CPA license, I know how hard it is to actually get it DONE. Now onto the CFE? Wow! Now, I’m impressed!
I am so glad you stopped by my site. I am trying to update it around 2-3 times per week, so come by again!
Valerie
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