This is a true story.  

I was having a dream last night.  A stressful one.  I was still in law school and searching for summer internships.  I couldn’t find anything that interested me.  I was also having anxiety over whether I wanted to practice law at all.  As I was coming out of the nightmarish dream, some rational thoughts emerged… “I’m no longer an attorney. I’m running The Learning Consultants  (Connecticut Career Counseling is a subsidiary of The Learning Consultants.)

As I gradually awoke, my stress turned to joy.  Thank God! I thought.  I was so happy that I was about to get up for the day.  But, it was before 5 am.  So, I slept… peacefully for a couple of hours. 

My mission to help others find happiness in their careers stems from genuine empathy.  The combination of law school plus law practice was 11 years for me.  Some of it was great (law school friendships, experiences as a big city prosecutor).  Some of it was good (traveling the country while working on a huge securities fraud case).  Some of it was miserable (billing hours in private practice).  But, most all of it – even during the good times – was spent searching for what I really wanted to do. 

Constantly looking for something else.  That was a tough.  

When I started The Learning Consultants many years ago, I found what I was searching for and started building.  Even during the initial stages when there was uncertainty about “success”, I was happy while building what I knew was true to me.  

It was not easy.  At the time, I was relatively new to Connecticut, knew few people in Shoreline, CT where the company was growing, and didn’t really know anyone in education circles throughout local high schools where the base of our clients came from.  I had to build the company from scratch.  But, it felt good – sometimes stressful – but most of the time invigorating.

Whenever I’m with a career counseling client and know that I am helping them move from career searching to career building, I feel great joy.  That joy comes from remembering my own past.