How to Find a Job: When There Are No Jobs (Book 1) a Necessary Job Search and Career Planning Guide for Today's Job Market (Find a Job Series) (3 page)

Back to the Drawing Board

I went back to the drawing board and reviewed both of my idea and goal files. Finally, after a few failed attempts to find a manager to run my executive search business, I decided once again to sell my company. At this particular juncture in my life, my decision to sell my business was one of the most difficult for me. The reasons for my initial attraction to this type of business remained and continued to keep me involved.  The company had been good to me financially, and it enabled me to experience a great deal of freedom in my life.

Over the next several months I worked through a business broker and successfully located a buyer who wanted to purchase my company. However, the thought of selling my search business once again forced me to thoroughly reevaluate my career path. After many discussions with my family and advisors, what finally occurred to me was that from the very beginning of my business career, I had been in the process of preparing myself for my next business venture. I didn’t recognize my career path at this point in my life because I wasn’t receptive or ready to accept it.

The Truth is Revealed

When I was twenty-five years old I purchased my first house, followed five years later by the purchase of a townhouse. Both properties were in need of a lot of updating and renovation. I did the majority of the work myself and had either sold the property or, in the case of my townhouse, had renovated it and rented the unit. Shortly after I had graduated from college, my father had allowed me to renovate a building he owned while I lived in one of the units rent-free. Due to this arrangement, I was able to save enough money to purchase my first house and rehab property.

What I allowed myself to discover during this time of reflection was that my career path and ultimate desire was real estate investing and rehab work.  For many years my passion had always been the excitement of renovating real estate. I had an uncanny ability in college to recognize a building that needed restoration and what repairs were required. In certain instances shortly after I would identify a building in need of renovation, someone else would soon begin the exact changes I had visualized.

During college I owned a painting business and had driven by a home I admired because of its unusual architectural style. I recall saying to myself, if only the owner would paint and do a few needed repairs to this house it would be a great home once again. Well, to my utter surprise, I received a phone call from an elderly woman asking me to do some painting work on that very house!  It turned into a labor of love and when I finished painting the house, it never looked better.

After a great deal of reflection, the career path that I finally decided upon, much to the dismay of the individual wanting to purchase my search business, was what my intuition had been telling me for many years. The plan was and always had been relatively straightforward. Simply build my executive search business to a point where I would be able to hire a capable manager to run the day-to-day operations. This plan would allow me to focus my attention towards areas of my true interest and passion, namely real estate investment and writing. 

An Added Benefit that May Have Saved My Career

In addition to my decision not to sell my executive search business, I decided to start a career counseling business and merge it with my search firm. I had always enjoyed career counseling as a part of my role as an executive recruiter. Career counseling had been an intricate part of my search business, but I never charged for my services or advice in this area. However, I received the most personal satisfaction from helping others with their careers. I was assisting individuals through a difficult time in their lives and they were very grateful for my help. This type of work challenged me and was rewarding at the same time. As a welcomed benefit, my executive search work became more meaningful to me. I alleviated a great deal of stress in my life by making the decision to merge my two businesses. I was finally doing the work that I enjoyed and cared about. I was also much happier and excited about my search business and as a result became more energized. As an added benefit, I had one of the best financial quarters in my business career. My focus had changed significantly and I was no longer obsessed with the money factor. To my surprise, I made money faster and with more ease than I had ever before. 

This book was written as the result of my decision to start my career counseling business and merge it with my executive search firm. My research and career planning had finally led me to the realization and acceptance of my career path, namely real estate investing and writing, coupled with my executive search and career counseling firm as a vehicle to help me achieve overall success. I experienced a new level of energy and renewed vitality during this time in my life.

I continued to have periods of time where I doubted my interest and desire to run my executive search business. However, I found those times not to be nearly as debilitating or long lasting as in the past. I allowed my intuition to confirm for me that this was my unique career path. More importantly, I used my goals as a means to put my career plans into action and acted on my beliefs by expanding and continuing to do the things that I had a passion for. 

I began to spend more of my time writing and further educated myself in the area of real estate.  I also expanded my knowledge about human relations and other areas of business during this time. Had I made the decision to remain strictly in the executive search business, I may never have had experienced these new and exciting human relations avenues. The career path I chose for myself at this point in my life had a much deeper and more purposeful meaning than money or the allure that it had for me in the past. When you focus on achieving a balanced life, including a fulfilling career, the amount of money you make may be far greater than you had previously imagined. 

Throughout the following two years I continued to aggressively pursue my chosen career path combining my executive search and career counseling business with my passion for writing and investing in real estate. During this time, my executive search business was very lucrative and I wanted to use the profits to expand my real estate investments. My family and I made a decision to move further out into the country and build another house with further plans to purchase more properties to rehab. We completed building our new house in 1996 and shortly thereafter our fifth child was born.  Our life and my career were continuing to move forward as we had planned.

Then in June 1997, my father passed away from what had been the culmination of many ailments resulting in a long and debilitating illness. My father was a very strong influence in my personal and professional life. Several months prior to his death with the help of a pastor friend of mine, I had mentally prepared myself for what I felt to be an inevitable loss. I have since learned that no matter how much you try to prepare yourself for a final event such as death, especially that of a parent or other family member, it is nearly impossible to foresee the outcome. 

In spite of my grief over the loss of my father, I was determined to move forward with my life and career plans. It was an extremely exciting and busy time of my life as my family and I had just built a new home and were blessed with the birth of our child. Prior to my father’s passing, I had moved my executive search business from Wheaton, Illinois into a building I had renovated in our new town and hired a new associate to help run my business. 

I also decided to sell my rental house during this time in an effort to raise more money to purchase additional properties in our new location. Prior to our move, I had familiarized myself with the real estate market in my new area and continued to learn as much as possible about the market by speaking with several realtors. I began to identify and view a number of potential rehab projects. 

My life and career for all practical purposes was running very smoothly, but then tragedy struck once again. I was vacationing with my family in Texas in early August 1998.  We were swimming in a pool at a condominium complex we were staying at when I decided to check my voicemail messages at my office. To my shock and complete horror, I was informed that my oldest daughter, who was only sixteen at the time, had been killed in a tragic auto accident while driving to see a movie with her boyfriend.

She was the only one killed in this terrible accident. I was devastated by this unimaginable loss and became immersed in a fog of my own reality. I was making real progress as I continued to recover from my grief as the result of the loss of my father only a year earlier. I was now forced to try and cope and manage the loss of a child. I immersed myself in my work for nearly a year after my daughter’s tragic death but despite my efforts, my grief finally caught up with me and I became very debilitated and could not work efficiently. My executive search business began to suffer as my inability to focus on my work for almost a year caused a great deal of financial hardship during this time of my life.

After much reflection, I began to slowly work again and was able to generate enough money with my executive search business to survive. My personal and business expenses had increased over this period of time as the result of the purchase of our new home and office space. I began to feel a much greater level of negativity and an overall lack of enthusiasm towards my business. My pessimistic thoughts about my company seemed to be enhanced as the result of my grief over the death of my father in 1997 and the loss of my daughter only a year later. Deep depression began to set in and my overall performance in the search business was marginal at best. In spite of my debilitating grief, I began to think of other ways to generate an income stream to protect my family.

Real estate investing was a component of my career path and a real passion of mine. I was fortunate enough to have made several very good real estate investments over many years. By combining my personal savings, real estate profits and equity with the income from my executive search business, I was able to move forward and survive during this difficult time of my life.

I sought out a profession counselor to help me work through my grief as well as cope with the daily rigors of life and business ownership. The level of stress and anxiety I felt during this time was very painful and excruciating. My marriage and family life also began to suffer during this difficult time. However, through a combination of professional counseling coupled with the support of many close friends and family members, I was able to refocus my efforts and pull myself through what was a very dismal period of my life.

After a few very difficult years and a sheer will and persistence to heal myself, I was once again able to focus my attention on my career and the executive search business. As a result, I recorded the best year I ever had in my company’s history in 2002. I decided that is was a good time to take a vacation to regroup and reflect on my thoughts in reference to my life and career path.  I decided to go to one of my favorite vacation spots in the Florida Keys. My father had previously owned a condo on one of the inland waterways of Key Vaca. I tried my hand at backcountry fishing and despite having hired a fantastic guide, did not catch a single fish. However my trip proved to be mentally refreshing and helped me to focus for the remaining months of 2002.  I was totally immersed in my business during this time and it began to take a serious toll on me in early 2003. I once again had successfully burned myself out. Tremendous grief over the loss of my daughter had returned and continued to plague my fragile mind. I once more sought out personal counseling to help me through this difficult time. Unfortunately my executive search business also started to decline as my ability to focus was fading fast. 

My vacation to the Florida Keys had somewhat of an unexpected but very positive result affecting my career path. I was able to get back to my beloved writing during this time. As I sat on the pristine beaches of the Florida Keys, I started to earnestly write my second book. I remember telling myself at that time, I had made it. I was writing and in my element doing something I truly loved. I felt strongly that my passion for writing was a key to achieving overall happiness and contentment in my life. My executive search business had taught me how to examine and read the personalities of people. That ability somehow became more enhanced as the result of my daughter’s passing. I’m not able to fully explain how or why these particular abilities of mine were enhanced; I just know that they were and have continued to be to this day.

In 2007, I discovered a letter I had written to my mother dated June 02, 2002, which illustrates my thoughts regarding these issues. My letter reads as follows: “It finally struck me. I now know what my passion is. It must be writing as an incredible feeling came over me while responding to your note regarding my brother in law. I was overcome by what I can only describe as the warmest feeling I have ever felt in my heart and mind. I have come to the realization that I must write about the human spirit and life’s travels. I have an uncanny ability to read most people and feel what they are feeling. I can’t begin to describe it, but I know it’s very real. When speaking with someone, I am able to experience and can somehow absorb and make sense of one’s struggle and thoughts from within. It may be as a partial result of my daughter’s passing, because my abilities and feeling in this area have certainly been enhanced. Many stories and new ideas continue to come to me as my life progresses. I need to act now though, as time is an enemy of memory. I now know for sure what I need to do.”

My writing career has begun in earnest as I complete this, my first book and continue to write two others. Although very dramatic, my letter to my mother was written several years ago and is a clear indication that it was written at a time when I was feeling a great deal of passion. My thoughts for my life and career were stirred by deep emotion that had been caused by a significant change in my life. Often the trauma felt by the death of a loved one or other major event in one’s life such as the loss of a job, will stir your inner feelings and guide you towards a specific change in your life and may also have potential to alter your career path.