Your Career Doesn’t Always Work Out as You Planned… Thank Goodness

In following Kathy’s career blog post, I thought I’d share the same.

Reflecting over the past 2 years, it’s been a whirlwind of change and emotion. Today I’m running my own business with two amazing partners but a few years ago I was happily employed by a company I had been with for a long time and never planned to leave. So what happened? Life I guess. Nothing stays the same or works out as you planned, and sometimes that’s a really good thing.

Truth be told, while I always aspired to own a business, I probably would have never taken the plunge without a push. There were some really dark, sad days while I was figuring out my next move. And then those “What if?” conversations that once started as dreams started coming to life. It took a lot of time to figure how to make the plan work – hours that were after the day job and many late nights after my kids were in bed. And it took having 2 partners that I could trust – who I knew would always be there to make it all happen.

Research is an interesting career choice. No one really knows what you do… it’s not something you grow up thinking, I aspire to be a market researcher. Some people think you are a telemarketer, while others just nod but really are not sure what it means. Market research means many things but its typically performed by people who enjoy learning from other’s opinions and that love to play with and analyze data.  My first manager in market research told me, “Once you get the research bug, you can’t stop it.” And it’s true. I actually tried a different career path at one point but found myself overanalyzing everything because I missed combing through details and comparing things – and that wasn’t part of my job. Incidentally, my first manager is over 70 and has still not retired.

But at the end of these 2 years, I can honestly say that I’m happy I was let go to pursue my dreams. Thank you to my partners for believing in me and taking this chance. And of course thank you for our customers – without you this wouldn’t be possible. While we don’t think of ourselves as new since we have over 70 years of combined experience and have worked together for over 10 years; we know it’s not always easy to take a chance on a newly established business. So take that plunge and do what you love. If it doesn’t work out the way you expect, know that something better is around the corner.