Trap doors and many hats

I remember when I was in my late twenties, working at a large financial services company, making a competitive wage and basically enjoying my job, it occurred to me, that if I stayed put, I ran the risk of being "trapped."

Or so I thought.


I think sometimes we get into a field or a career path and while we enjoy it, the deeper we wade into the ocean of what we know, the less comfortable we are considering something else.

I fell into this trap. I felt stuck, when I began to consider my options. I had experience with a company largely organized in a branch office system. My experience was in a branch office. Never at the corporate hub. In my experience, having worked with clients, mainly in a branch office, I noted the differences in culture.

I also intellectually knew that my skill set might translate to another industry, but it seems to me, and still does on some days, that organizations may not actually be open to taking a chance on something "in translation." It seems to me, in terms of cost, most hiring managers default to "tried and true" verses the "breath of fresh air."

As I sit in my co-working space, largely alone on this rainy day, I think to myself, really what is it that I want. I have a fantastic collection of skills. I have the education to back many of them up now, what is my next step. I am spectacular and brilliant at figuring out what it is I don't want. Deciding what I want is another matter entirely.

What I want is to try on hats.

That is what I am about to do. I am entering an exploratory phase of my professional life I think. I have delineated some avenues I would like to visit and I want to see what sticks, what offers the best balance point and frankly what brings me the most joy.

At 22 I took a job that paid the bills. At 24 I climbed the ladder and continued to do so for quiet some time, becasue I was hungry.



Today, I am curious and I am driven, but for very personal reasons. I have a better sense of who I am, what I don't want, and what I am willing to trade and what things in my life are most important.

That said, I also know something today, in the here and now, I did not know then.

Failure is an option. I might not like a hat or a hat might not fit me for the long term, the only trap is the one I build for myself.

The sky is the limit when one has the determination and the open mindedness to be willing to risk failing and to be willing to try on hats.