376. A Career Based on Building Relationships

Meredith used to play school as a child. “I can remember I always wanted to be a teacher.” In college, she thought she might want to teach English. “I took a career assessment, which showed more of a predisposition toward working with younger children. “I switched over to Elementary education and really enjoyed that. I had always loved kids, so that was a really good fit for me. It’s just that I felt the need for something more.”

After working as a classroom teacher, Meredith took a job in the school board office. “I was able to have more influence with the teachers in school. I worked in three different School divisions and the last one was really interesting. In the two years I worked there, I had two very different experiences. The second year’s experience is what launched me into starting my own business. “What’s interesting is that I had zero background in business! I had never taken any classes in sales and marketing, and not a single class in business, and yet some of the skills I had acquired over the years served me well when I decided to jump out and start working with local businesses.”

“I was always really interested in observing people—watching how they get along—and in helping people. Even in the positions I’d had at the school board office, I was interested in helping people build relationships. In my head, I knew that I had that ability. I began thinking of how I could translate that into some work I could do. I decided I could help people become better communicators at work. That’s such a huge challenge!”

1. Look at what you are doing in a detached way, as if it were the subject of a science experiment. This will give you objective data to work with and will help you avoid harshly judging yourself.

2. Don’t judge yourself as a failure if things don’t work out as you planned. Learn from it and try again.

3. Don’t take yourself too seriously. Humor helps.

4. Recognize that there is no such thing as THE right way. Allow yourself to improvise, adjust course and learn.

Crazy Good: A Book of CHOICES, by Steve Chandler

Fearless: Creating the Courage to Change the Things You Can, by Steve Chandler

Time Warrior: How to defeat procrastination, people-pleasing, self-doubt, over-commitment, broken promises and chaos, by Steve Chandler

LinkedIn Riches: How To Use LinkedIn For Business, Sales and Marketing! by John Nemo