Letter to My Corporate Self

I got a huge response to one of my favorite posts A Letter to My 20-Something Self so I thought I would do something similar and write to my corporate self.  And for any of you reading this right now who left the corporate world, I’d love for you to do the same on your blog or in the comments below so that you can inspire others who are craving some advice from someone who has been there and survived to tell their story.

**

Dear Corporate Suzannah,

I know how you are feeling right now. You wake up every morning to that damn alarm and curse it. Beeeeep. Beeeeep. Beeeeeep. You think to yourself that there must be a more pleasant way to greet the morning. You are not a morning person. And you know deep in your heart that you are craving to wake up when your body tells you it is ready to wake up. (Wait until you have kids, that all changes again)

Once you finally surrender to the fact that you have to wake up and face the day (except on those days where you overslept – which happened probably a little too often for your boss’ liking), you dress  up in business casual clothes. “Ugh, really?”, you think. Black slacks, a button down and heels. Could that be any less like you??? Now you are grumpy from waking up early AND you have to put on these cheesy clothes that not only look bad but are incredibly uncomfortable. You throw your hair in a ponytail, put on a little makeup and as quickly as possible rush out the door.

It isn’t until you step into Starbucks and finally get that beautiful cup of serenity called a soy latte that you start to feel a bit better. There is something about the ritual of getting that coffee in the morning that makes everything seem more tolerable. (This also continues in motherhood)

Finally you make it into work and you try to rush past your boss’ office but usually she stops you and while you still have your bag on your arm and crust in your eyes, she is talking to you about production delays and meetings and God knows what else. You think, “is she for real?!”

As I write to you, it is so clear on why you were so miserable. All of this is so not you. You are casual. You ease into your day. Structure makes you uncomfortable. You are not a fan of routine.

It doesn’t matter that you are good at what you do and that you are successful. That doesn’t mean you should stay there. Being good at something doesn’t mean that is what you are meant to do. I’m good at cleaning my house but that doesn’t mean I should be a housecleaner.

You know deep in your heart that you are meant to be an entrepreneur. You just don’t know what the heck you would do or how you could possibly support yourself. You’ve run through it a million times in your head. Could you move back into your parent’s house to save on rent? Could you give up your Starbucks? (gasp!) You research. A lot. That feels safe. It feels like you are doing something without really actually doing anything.

What’s my advice to you? It is ito know that there is a reason for all of this. It may not feel like it but you are learning a lot. And guess what else? No matter what happens in your life, you have built a name and a career for yourself that you can always fall back on. Life can take strange twists and turns and to know that if you need to, you can always go back and earn a living doing corporate work if you need to, you can.

And one day you are going to do work that you love that is helping people going through the same thing you are going through right  now. And you can relate to them. You get it. In order to get to point B, you have to go through point A which is where you are now.

My other advice to you is to start taking action. It is the only way to dispel fear. Set a date for when you want to transition out of your job. Start there. It feels concrete and you can create a plan around that. Then figure out what you have to do to be able to do that. Who can you talk to that is already doing what you want to be doing? Are there classes you can take? Networking events you can go to?

Just start doing something. Fear can be paralyzing. I know it. But that isn’t you. You are a mover. So take action. And don’t wait until you are so miserable that you make rash decisions. (Yes, you do that) Start when you realize that this isn’t what you want to do but can still stomach being at work. Take advantage of your salary, your benefits. This is the time.

 You’ll get there. I promise. And when you are there, I can’t promise it will be easy. But it will be worth it. You will finally feel like yourself. You won’t believe that you get paid to do what you do. It happens.

Love,

Me

Tags: aha moment, blogger, career, career change, career reinvention, entrepreneur, escape from cubicle nation, how to change career, inspirational, job search, monster.com, network marketing, personal branding, productive, san francisco
Categories: Personal Musings

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 14th, 2010 at 8:21 am and is filed under Personal Musings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.