New Horizons
It’s funny how great clarity finds us in the most random of moments. In my case, I was contemplating life while condemned to only lying on my back in bed after an injury.
The last chapter of this series was a difficult one to write. It dealt with the bill I had to pay, that we all must pay, for neglecting my mind’s and body’s needs for 25 years. But we have arrived at the good part: how sometimes we have to hit rock bottom in order to know where to go next.
While tethered to my bed, coaching came to me. Forced into bed rest, I was taking stock of my deeper desires. Many came to the surface, among which was a degree in artificing. Yes, artificing. But one thing stood out and I realized how it had been a near accidental fixture throughout my career.
Running in parallel to any project I would handle, a continuous source of joy and positive feedback were my qualities, both innate and acquired through hard work, as a boss and mentor. Guiding and helping others had always been foundational to how I conducted myself in my day-to-day life. And despite leaving my corporate life behind, I wasn’t done being of service. This was a time at which coaching started to become more popular. A time at which people started to realize that the way to grow and innovate is not the way of the stoic leader, but that of the vulnerable one. And so I set out toward new horizons.
Now, if you want to change careers and enter the world of coaching, let me tell you that research is everything. There are more different schools of thought in this world than there are grains of sand in the Canary Islands. So talk to people in the field that you respect, be meticulous when scanning and comparing different coaching approaches, and see which ones the market is currently responding to favorably.
How it happened for me
In November 2017, having settled into the US after my exit from Switzerland, I sat in my first coaching class and the journey began. There is much that goes into building a business (and we’ll get to that in another article), but I do want to use the remaining paragraphs of this entry to make something clear.
For almost all of us who catapult ourselves into the world of entrepreneurship, the first steps we take are taken clutching the strong arms of the people with whom we have already built relationships.
People from our past, be they friends, colleagues, or that interesting stranger you exchanged numbers with one stormy night. It is them who often become our first clients. And if not clients, they are the ones who help make those first critical handshakes happen for us. Who can introduce us to their friends and colleagues in crisis and in need of support? Who can send us to the right events or professional networks in which our dream clientele might roam? Who are sometimes also self-employed and can take us along into our first project?
Asking for help and guidance takes humility and bravery, with our egos squished deep inside our back pockets. It also takes having a network that is willing to step up for us in the first place.
The work to cultivate such a network begins today, wherever you may currently find yourself. Look around you and see whom you can be of service to. For whom can you open doors this week, enable a next professional step or lend a helping hand to in a tight spot? This is not a methodical curation, but rather an attitude to life and work we must all adopt. It is about being genuine in your giving, without ever expecting anything in return. For the best opportunities are those that come your way without you ever having to ask for them.
Whichever path you choose and whichever place you leave, remember how the saying goes: “You always meet twice in life.” Never burn a bridge. For you can never know when you may want to venture across it again.
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