In the Think and Grow podcast featuring entrepreneur Marie Forleo, she speaks about how she went through many trials and tribulations before she honed in on what really excited her. One of the things that bothered her about her first few jobs was the fact that she didn’t want to end up like many of the people she was working for. In other words, she didn’t see herself doing what her bosses were doing. She knew she wanted to do something different and that she had a lot more to offer than her current roles allowed her to.
More importantly, she realised that she wouldn’t be fulfilled if she continued on the path that she was on.
‘What do you want to be when you grow up’ is a question we ask children. In reality, it’s a question that we need to keep asking ourselves.
Once we start working, we are expected to choose a career path and stick with it forever. Therein lies the problem — what happens when we decide we want to get off the path that we are on and do something else?
When we’re rookies, all of us wonder what it will be like to be the boss, the creative director, the CEO or the Chairman. We want to be the ones in charge, make the big decisions, take home the big salary and get the corner office. At that stage, we don’t really know the responsibilities and tensions that come with those designations.
If being the boss means being available 24 x 7, will you still want the job?
If being the most powerful person in the room means networking and schmoozing, will it still appeal to you?
If you saw leadership as a means to make a difference in people’s lives while at the same time, you also realised that it involved hours of painstaking and thankless work to build a team and create a thriving culture, will you still be excited by it?
This dilemma can strike us at any age. We star gaze into the future and don’t like where we might end up. We may also be side-tracked by wrong examples of cultures or leadership in front of us. Whatever be the reason, we realise that we want to change track and ‘grow up’ to be someone else. We know we have more to contribute and want to do work that taps our latent potential instead of being mere cogs in a machine.
Then, the only question to ask is — if we don’t like where we’re headed, are we willing to change track?
It’s important for us to realise one thing — it’s possible to change tracks and grow up to be better versions of ourselves, one that we can be proud and one where we’re happy and fulfilled.
