When I entered this career 14 years ago, it was something that came very unexpectedly. I had initially thought that I was going to do something completely different, but if you are anything like I was, you are unsatisfied in your career.
Maybe you’re not making the money you thought you’d make, or you’re traveling too much. Perhaps you feel undervalued, or just the whole idea of the corporate ladder has got you down, and you feel like you’re never going to advance to where you really want to. You might start thinking about making a career change. When I started considering a career change, I thought, “Okay, so what’s really important to me?”
I began to think my way through three things that I found to be important for me in making a career change. The first thing was finding a career that allowed me to do good for other people. I knew right away when I came to a decision that I wanted more from my career than just having a job. I wanted to serve and help others. That was my mission - to find a career that allowed me to do things for others.
Next, I was looking for an opportunity to do well financially. I wanted to build a career that would allow me some freedom and to provide for my family. I also wanted the chance to control my own financial destiny. As an entrepreneur, that’s at the heart of it all - that fact you control those things. I felt very strongly that this would be something that would motivate me. When things were difficult or tough, I knew that as much as I am missional motivated, it is okay to be driven by and make sure that I am providing for my family. I wanted to make sure that I was in a career where I could essentially control my own income stream.
The last puzzle piece was that I wanted to be able to have freedom with my schedule. When I made my career change 14 years ago, I had two young children under the age of six. I used to travel 80-100 nights a year, so I was missing important things. When I started envisioning their future involvement in soccer, basketball, football, ballet, and piano recitals and all the things that my kids loved to do, it dawned on me that my career at that time was probably going to highly limit me on those experiences with them. I wanted independence with my schedule and my calendar; both, really important to me. I wanted to make sure that the career I chose allowed me flexibility so that when I was working, I could focus on work and work hard, but balance it with giving me the freedom and flexibility to do what I want, when I want to.
I love Georgia Football, and I love going on Georgia Football road trips I love playing golf with my friends, traveling with my wife, and going to my kid’s events. I’ve got one in high school and one in college. I didn’t want to miss my daughter’s Parents Weekend at college this past Fall, so I took a day and a half off and drove there to see her. I wanted that from this career.
In a perfect world, where all three of these things are present, it’s the ideal career opportunity. More importantly, it’s an ideal opportunity that allows you to live out your calling - everything we would want for a career is possible. That’s what I have found in this career.
It allows me to serve and help people each day. I am so thankful and so blessed to have the amazing clients that I work with, and I can’t wait to meet my next new client. I really love the fact that I can control my income, and I am able to do things that I never thought I could do as a business owner. I used to think that for the rest of my life I would get the same benefits as the guy down the hall from me and the same three to seven percent raise that he got. That is just not the case. You can control your own income, and it is not capped.
Looking at all three of these factors and how they came together, you’ll understand what led me to this career. If you would like to talk more about your career and where you are headed, I would love to see if this model would apply to you.