Entrepreneur Diaries: Stop Overthinking Your Career
I was always that kid who was planning my life out. 5-years, 10-years, lifetimes of thinking what I should, would, could be doing. On the list of things I planned having an awesome resume, with tons of unique features was definitely one of them.
I remember sitting with my mom asking her to rattle off everything she ever did. She told me things like inventing a product and patenting it. Later working for a hand surgeon and dissecting human hands so the doctor she was working for could analyze the anatomy. Owning and running a company. And this was just the short list.
I was in awe. My mom was my total idol. She did all these incredible things in such a short amount of time and she managed to be there for me growing up.
My personal to-do list for life included:
Graduate High School
Graduate College
Graduate with a Masters
Doctorate ?
Work a Long List of Crazy Awesome Jobs to Make My Crazy Awesome Resume
Get Married
Buy a House
Get a Dog
Have Kids
Stay Home with Kids
This list no less was developed at 16! And I am not one to back down on my word. Fast-forward 10 years, now 26 (today is even my birthday).
What happened actually?
Graduate High School - Check
Graduate College - Check
Graduate with a Masters – Started but never finished
Doctorate? – HECK NO!
Work a Long List of Crazy Awesome Jobs to Make My Crazy Awesome Resume – We will chat more on this in a minute
Get Married - Check
Buy a House - Check
Get a Dog – We have 2 awesome Beagles!
Have Kids – Soonish (give me at least a year or two)
Stay Home with Kids - In the works (but I can never give up having a career)
I may not have gone after my “life” exactly the way I intended, but something pretty crazy happened. I lived my life and I kept expecting more and wanting more. And the best thing ever happened. The more I sought, the more I gained.
In work and in life I have done some pretty crazy things like:
Dissect Rat Brains to analyze the lipid content of their brains. (This was for a study to see if Alcoholism was hereditary)
Work in both the food and retail space. (Lord knows I appreciate how hard these people work and I am so glad that is a thing of the past for me)
Travel to 10+ countries (England, Japan, Italy, Switzerland, France, Germany, Mexico, Monaco, Rome, Belgium, Austria to name a few)
Educate students (Being a guest lecture has always been an honor)
Worked with well known brands (Such as Coca-Cola, Joanne's Fabrics & Crafts, Northern Tool, 7-Eleven and many more)
Open and run my own successful business (Crazy pants!)
What I learned was that it didn’t matter what my resume said now. Or even what I had “planned” for it to say. If I just kept pushing and pursuing my dreams in the moment, things fell in place. The experience of life just continues to happen. It can make you grow, it can change you and it can totally alter the career path you go down.
In short, follow your dreams, trust your gut and pray hard! Wishes do come true.
