Career
I am fortunate that when I was young, my parents didn't feed me the thinking that it is important to study so that I can get a stable job to make a living.
Being an extrovert myself, I don’t see myself working in a job just to bring in the money for the family. I want to learn, able to travel, get to meet different people, listen to their stories, see things from their perspectives, and solving problems and be paid for them.
Maybe that is why I ended up listening to the stories of startup founders, restructuring businesses, and helping owners to correct the direction scaling them up. While at the same time, invest in businesses that can be part of the ecosystems that I am building up too.
That perhaps is my “career“,” which got crafted out along the way when I realized that I learnt better from mistakes of myself, others’ and looking at the various possible strategies to solve them once and for all too.
Too often I came across many trying very hard to justify what they had studied, the money their parents had put in, sending them overseas to the top universities to get that piece of paper. They want to make sure that it is all well spent with the justification of joining a top company and climbing the way up.
Nothing wrong with that but too often not all of them are happy about it. They tend to ask themselves if this is the career path that I want or am I just fulfilling what my parents want to so that I can walk that route for them?
And a handful of them ended up quitting their jobs at their peak and trying out something that they always desire but never get the opportunity to do so.
Many go into starting their own business or into a totally new industry, to fulfill that void after all these years but more than often they will be challenged as all these years, they been blindsided to what is going on out there to figure out that they need more than just a desire. They didn't emerge their heads out of the water to look at the surrounding before embarking onto this ‘awakening’.
To do:
- Ask yourself if this is a career that you really want? Starting on your own is high risk and many businesses died within the first 12 months. Or you may just have to start from the bottom to learn everything in a new industry.
- Are you physically and mentally prepared to push it forward?
- Do you have enough savings to help you in this new journey? You need at least 6 to 9 months of savings so that you can make mistakes, learn them, undo them while not affecting the current lifestyle.
- Downgrade your lifestyle gradually.
- Have you discussed with your family members the decision to be made? Your career change will be less challenging when you have love ones supporting you all the way.
- Ask for help from experts and get valuable advice that will provide you insights of that industry or the market that you are planning to enter. (https://www.xprenia.com/)
- If you are not ready now, the least you can do is to prepare yourself up by reading, meeting the industry veterans, get insights, read more about that specific industry news, attend events, ask questions, volunteer yourself, exchange information with others etc.
Be prepared to put in the hard work but enjoy the career switch and the Ups and Downs that come with it too. It should be something fun that you look forward everyday to solve the challenges ahead.
All the best.
