When my fledgling military career crashed and burned, I was left at loose ends. I didn’t know what to do.
I reapplied to one of the universities I had already been accepted to, and went there for a year, studying biochemistry. Although I enjoyed both biology and chemistry in high school, studying them at university left me bored senseless. So I quit.
I spent a year knocking around, working as a welding supply delivery man, and learned that mind numbingly boring physical labour wasn’t the thing for me.
That was when I took the Careers program at the Toronto YMCA, which led me to my first successful pivot. I went into mechanical engineering, and I’ve been there since.
Over the years I’ve become increasingly disillusioned with my career, to the point that I no longer think of engineering as a career, but simply as a job.
It’s time for another pivot.
I’ve slowly been picking away at this pivot for about 7 years now, and it’s time to get serious. The condition the world is in doesn’t allow any more dithering.
I’m really beginning to see the shape of my next pivot, and it’s time to lean into it.
I will begin by pushing hard on my efforts as a freelance writer, but that is merely an interim thing, a stepping stone.
Next week I begin a deliberate course of creating a personal brand, and a business around it. Yes, writing will be one of the core principals, but it is just that, one of the principals. Becoming a full time freelance writer is simply moving into another job.
The ultimate goal is to become a publisher.
