Career Curve Balls From A Renaissance Woman
Those Unexpected Life Lessons
The Road Of Many Curves
When you read my upcoming mini memoir,Renaissance Woman, you’ll discover that my career path has been a bit of a strange one. Full of twists and turns, obstacles and puzzles (aka #careercurveballs), I was left multiple times picking up the pieces.
My usual intro line reads “CEO, leader, Ambassador, business woman, former spy, poet-photographer who does Wing Chun Kung Fu, plays with swords, has flown an airplane, that happens to sing, has experience in over 29 industries and has been in/LOVES Disney movies.” Let me tell you, a story like that isn’t planned.
After studying Anthropology and Psychology in a formal university setting, then being decommissioned due to a major illness, becoming a formal Anthropologist wasn’t in the cards…
I had been working since the age of 14. Sometimes even up to 4 jobs at a time, (substitute teacher, nanny, nutrition center, private investigation, the list goes on) trying to put myself through school and trying the best I could to help out with family expenses. Doing this, I got to taste quite a sampler of vocations.
After being a director and working in private investigation and surveillance, then later finding what I thought was my “photographer calling,” and getting a job at the Associated Press, I was sure that I’d make it a career, but that was not in the cards either. (aka#careercurveballs)
Then, came working down near Wall Street with fortune 500 clients, but I was taken off the market yet again.
I finally ended up within the United Nations Campus, working closely with the UN in a NGO. Out of all things that I could have been given, I was placed in a more technological type of role (I had been a self taught, coder, database specialist and new media expert) Nope again. This time, budgets dried up and communications wasn’t on the list of priorities for this organization. (another #careercurveballs)
After all these career curve balls, I finally discovered how to articulate what those experiences had taught me. I could take all of that weird experience and moosh in into a ball. I would make my own company. I could take all the good and bad that I faced, and help others in their professional careers, businesses, and lives with all that I had learned.
With all the #careercurveballs here are the major life and business lessons I can now say I’ve learned.
My 5 Lessons From My Many Career Curveballs
1. “Know thyself.” Question what experience you have that can be useful? It may have not come from a classroom. Know what makes you tick. Know your strengths weaknesses, shortcomings. Usually all this is whispering a direction in life.
2. Whatever you do, be in it to “Grow life,” your own and others around you. Always leave anyone you meet whether in business or on the street, better off for having met you.
3. Strive to “live in the light” no matter what life throws at you.
An old native American told his grandson, “My son, there is a battle between two wolves inside us all. One is Evil. It is anger, jealousy, greed, resentment, inferiority, lies, and ego. The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, humility, kindness, empathy, & truth.” The boy thought about it, and asked, “Grandfather, which wolf wins?” The old man quietly replied, “The one you feed.”
4. Strive to “become captain and commander” of yourself Learning the lessons of who you do and do not want to be, from the people you’ve encountered. If you are to ever influence your environment you must lead by example. You must “be like water,” adaptable, resourceful and resilient.
5. Enjoy the process and the journey. Find “magical moments” everyday despite the chaos and drudgery. Those moments are what you remember in life.
May your career curve balls lead you to your own lessons and success!
Rosalee
Follow me at rosaleelaws.com or
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