Trish Sie, Director of a movie each from the Pitch Perfect and Step Up franchises, is a friend of mine from Penn. After leaving the Ivy League, she took a most unusual road. She became a world class competitive ball room dancer and opened up a dance studio. From there, she was the creative force beyond the pop-rock band Ok-Go’s viral videos. You might remember the dancing on treadmills video that was named one of the most influential music videos of all time.
“John”, one of my closest friends from Penn . had a business trip to Los Angeles at the same time as I was vacationing in California. He also knows Trish and joined us for dinner.
John has been unhappy in his legal career for many years. He is one of the most creative, interesting, and entertaining people I’ve ever met. Since John and I are friends – he’s not my career counseling client – I don’t act as his career coach for worry that I would affect the friendship with lecturing or making me compare my happy work with his unhappy career.
Trish, however, decided that he needed a call to action. ” This is your life. What are you waiting for? Why would you spend your time miserable in a career when there are so many other things that you could do that would you happy?” She then provided excellent suggestions on how creative types can forge their career. Among her nuggets of career wisdom: “find your unique point to jump into a field – how would you contribute in a unique way?”
I’ve known John for 25 plus years and I’ve never seen him so inspired to make a career change.
This is your life. Maybe you need someone to shake you up so you can take career action.