Screw The "Safe Job"- Do What Gets You Excited to Get Out of Bed Every Day
How my safe job failed me....twice
Now, as an accountant I am not saying quit your day job…just yet. I am also not saying, don’t major in something useful (in college) that gives you a solid career plan.
However, if your find yourself in a place that sucks the soul out of you, something that you hate getting out of bed for, it may be something worth examining—deeply.
If you know me, you know that I hang my hat on the “Life is Too Short” hook. It is. I saw it up close and personal last year.
I have never settled for the status quo…and neither should you. That is, if the status quo is something that makes every day a chore and doesn’t spark any joy.
In today’s world, quiet quitting is a thing of the past and we now have a culture and a generation who won’t put up with anything less than feeling not only like they are making a meaningful contribution to the world, but that they are taken care of well by their employer. We are in a state of world chaos and massive division. The world is heavy and the only thing we can control is the direction of our own lives.
In 1993, I graduated with honors from one the top Accounting programs in North Carolina, at NC State University. I passed the CPA exam first round as a senior. I got into the world’s largest accounting firm at the time, Arthur Andersen. I did all the right things. I never wanted to be a CPA, I just happened to be good at it. And, to be honest, I am glad I have that as my ‘fall back’ plan.
18 months in, I got let go. Everything I worked for my entire college career went down the drain. At least that is how I felt at 23 years old in 1995. Fast forward to 2011, I was working at a local CPA firm in Charlotte as a single mom of an eleven year old. My life had dramatically changed in all of those years. After being at the firm for five years, I approached my then boss for a raise. He rejected me and told me I was not where my peers were because of the “mom gap” in my resume (the time I took off to raise my son). I pulled a Jerry Maguire and quit on the spot.
It is then I decided to take my own life into my own hands and started my own bookkeeping firm. One client, with my kitchen table as my office.
I built a firm, but more than that, I was able to take something boring (accounting) and make it fun. I made it about changing people’s lives and helping them thrive in their own businesses, as well as creating something bigger than accounting. I have been able to create an entire personal brand, revolving around my thought leadership of courage and not settling. I have been able to walk into my purpose and build a life I love.
I want that for you. It takes stepping out of your comfort zone and walk the road less travelled. Not just because your culture, parents, society tells you that you should be doing something safe.
There is no safe.
I learned this at 18 years old when I watched my dad lose his executive job at 54 years old (my age now). I watched him spiral downward from the joyful man he once was to someone who lost his identity and pride. I watched him put three kids through college, give us grand weddings, and give us great lives even though he never bounced back. I watched him take less than jobs to provide for us. He shielded us from this, and it was only years later, I realized what he was going through.
It taught me a valuable lesson, so that even though I failed at ‘safe’ twice as a young adult, I knew that I wasn’t going to let THE MAN or THE BIG CORPORATE GIANT take away my freedom to build the life I wanted. Don’t let yourself live in autopilot.
Have the hard conversation.
Go against the grain if your intuition is telling you to.
Share your “not so popular” opinion with your leadership.
Start that business you’ve been dreaming about building.
Pursue what you love.
Stay Courageous, Nesha