For me, I graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. I then worked as an R&D design engineer for six years. So that’s a 10 year investment doing what I was trained to do before I decided to completely give it up!
My reason to make such a big change was simple. To others, I appeared successful in my career. I earned a good salary, was getting promoted, and worked for a great company, great boss and great colleagues. However, I didn’t feel like a successful person. I didn’t feel motivated, fulfilled, or especially happy about my life. I wasn’t connected with what I was doing or feel excited at all about my future. Most days, I woke up with little energy and not looking forward to my day. I was 27, but felt more like I was 57. I remember thinking, “This can’t be right.”
The decisions I made back then were all about getting myself to change my mindset and approach to my career and life. They were more realizations than specific decisions that I made. These were four big ones for me.
Stop doing what wasn’t giving me what I desired - Although I had no idea what would make me feel more motivated, fulfilled, excited and happy, the first big decision I made was to leave what wasn’t providing those things to me. Somehow, I knew that it’s much easier to find the things you don’t really enjoy doing before you find the things that you do really enjoy doing. Especially, when you’re young and starting out. If I wanted to find what I was passionate about, I had to leave my current situation and put myself into different ones.
Start doing things outside of my comfort zone - The second big decision I made was to make myself do many things that I used to avoid. This included getting more involved in different activities and situations, getting to know and understand different types of people, and getting myself to face new challenges.
I wanted to pursue a business career. I wanted to know what other industries and job functions might suit me better, so I needed to explore these every day. To do this, I had to overcome my fears and uncertainties. I knew this would require a constant effort and push to get myself to seek out and engage new situations.
Recognize the true risk of my situation – The reality was that pursuing a business career meant that I was going to meet many new challenges. I’d likely make mistakes, and even fail at times. So the biggest risk was going to be to my ego. But I had to face this in order to learn faster and become something different.
In the end, my fear of not changing was bigger than my fear of changing. I was scared to death of facing many unknown situations. But what scared me even more was seeing my life continue to pass by with no passion, fulfillment, or goals that I really cared about.
And ultimately, in the worst case scenario, my safety net was that I could always go back. If I ended up being terrible at business, I could always make my living as an uninspired, soul-less engineer. This was something that I’d already proven I could do. But if pursued a dramatic change, there was at least the possibility of finding whatever I was looking for. Viewed this way, what was I really risking by going for it?
Embrace my new journey – Perhaps the most important decision I made was to just embrace the journey and challenge of pursuing a more fulfilling future for myself. Frankly, I had no idea what I was doing, what I wanted to do, or what might happen! But I kept telling myself that there was something courageous about seeking my passion and fighting for my better future. During my toughest times, I’d remind myself that this is the person I wanted to become and the life I wanted to live someday.
Once I made these decisions and acknowledged these realizations, I never looked back. I’m not saying the change was easy. There were many times when I’d get down or feel extremely frustrated about my situation. There were many days when I felt no closer to figuring things out than when I started. In fact, it took a couple of years for me to just to break through the fears and doubts I felt every day. But once I did, everything became a challenge to improve myself and an adventure to enjoy. My life has been this way ever since.
Today, I’m part of the talent industry. I’m an entrepreneur. I am dedicated to helping others pursue their career success. When people meet me, I’m often asked where all my energy and passion comes from. I tell them that, actually, it’s probably five times more than what it was when I was in my 20s. It’s because what I do now, I really enjoy. It brings out the best in me, and has real purpose and meaning to me.
When you’re considering a big change, there are no guarantees that things will turn out well. But if you’re hardworking, persistent, and reasonably smart, then there’s a very good chance that they will. This is what I can assure you based on my experience.
我本科畢業於賓夕法尼亞大學的機械工程專業，然後做了六年研發設計工程師。所以那十年來，我做的都是與專業相關的事情。接著，我決定完全告別這一行業！這個改變是我現在能充滿激情和能量的實現夢想的原因。
之所以做出這麼大的改變，原因很簡單。其他人覺得我在工作中表現出色，薪資體面，有晉升，公司很好，老闆和同事也很棒，但我不覺得自己是個成功人士。我沒有動力，沒有滿足感，也沒有感到特別高興。我與自己的工作產生不了什麼共鳴，對我的未來也不感到興奮。 大多數日子裡，我早上醒來渾渾噩噩，對接下來的一天也不抱期待。那時我27歲，但感覺更像是57歲。那時的我心裡想，“不應該是這樣的。”
當時我做的決定都與改變自我心態和工作、生活方式有關，更多的是改變自我認識，而不是具體行動。以下是我的四個重大決定。
停止做不符合我願望的事情——雖然我不知道哪些事能讓我感到更積極向上、更滿足、興奮和快樂，但我做的第一個重大決定就是告別無法給我上述感受的事情。不知為何，我明白在找到自己真正喜歡做的事情之前，找到自己不喜歡做的事情要容易得多。尤其是在你還年輕，踏入職場未久的情況下。要想找到自己熱愛的事情，我必須告別目前的情況，走進另一個不同的情況。
開始踏出舒適圈——我做的第二個重大決定是做許多我曾經躲著的事情，包括參與更多不同的活動和情況，瞭解、理解不同型別的人，讓自己面對新挑戰。
那時我只知道想做與商務有關的工作。我想知道還有哪些行業和工作可能會適合我，所以我需要每天探索發現這些東西。為此，我必須克服恐懼和不確定性。我深知，要想追尋、參加新情況，我需要不斷努力，不斷逼自己。
認識自身情況存在的真正風險——現實是，找商務相關的工作意味著我要迎接許多新挑戰。我很可能會犯錯誤，甚至失敗。所以最大的風險是“自我”。但要想更快地學習，成為一個不同的人，我必須面對這一點。
對我來說，害怕一成不變甚於害怕改變。我害怕面對許多未知情況，但我更害怕人生還是像以前那樣，沒有我真正想要的激情、滿足感和目標。
最壞的情況是，我有後備保障，我還可以回去。如果最後商務這條路很糟糕，那我還是可以回去繼續當一個沒有靈魂的工程師，湊活過日子。事實已經證明，做這一行我還是可以的。但做巨大的改變，至少我有可能會找到真正想要的東西。從這一角度看，我好像沒冒什麼風險。
擁抱新旅程——也許我做的最重要的決定是擁抱旅程和挑戰，追尋更充實的未來。坦率地說，我不知道自己在做什麼，想做什麼，可能發生什麼！但我不斷告訴自己，要有勇氣尋找激情，為更美好的未來而戰。在最艱難的時刻，我會提醒自己，這是我想成為的那種人，是我想要的生活。
做出這些決定，認識到這些現實情況後，我就沒有回過頭。其實改變並不容易。許多時候，我都對眼前的狀況感到失落、沮喪；許多日子裡，我都覺得還是像開始一樣原地踏步，什麼事都沒弄明白。事實上，我花了幾年，才破除了每天的恐懼和懷疑。但一旦破除了這些情緒，一切都變成了挑戰，能讓我不斷提高自己，享受冒險。這就是我自那以後的生活。
如今，我在人才行業。我是個企業家，致力於幫助他人追求事業成功。人們碰到我，經常會問，我的能量和熱情來自哪裡。我回答說，如今的能量和熱情也許要比20多歲的我多四倍。因為我熱愛現在的工作。它能讓我展現出最佳的自我，對我而言有真正的目的和意義。
在考慮做出重大變化時，你無法保證事情會變得很好。但如果你是個勤奮、堅持、聰明的人，那麼很有可能事情會朝著積極的方向發展。根據我的經驗，我可以向你保證這一點。
For me, I graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. I then worked as an R&D design engineer for six years. So that’s a 10 year investment doing what I was trained to do before I decided to completely give it up!
My reason to make such a big change was simple. To others, I appeared successful in my career. I earned a good salary, was getting promoted, and worked for a great company, great boss and great colleagues. However, I didn’t feel like a successful person. I didn’t feel motivated, fulfilled, or especially happy about my life. I wasn’t connected with what I was doing or feel excited at all about my future. Most days, I woke up with little energy and not looking forward to my day. I was 27, but felt more like I was 57. I remember thinking, “This can’t be right.”
The decisions I made back then were all about getting myself to change my mindset and approach to my career and life. They were more realizations than specific decisions that I made. These were four big ones for me.
Stop doing what wasn’t giving me what I desired - Although I had no idea what would make me feel more motivated, fulfilled, excited and happy, the first big decision I made was to leave what wasn’t providing those things to me. Somehow, I knew that it’s much easier to find the things you don’t really enjoy doing before you find the things that you do really enjoy doing. Especially, when you’re young and starting out. If I wanted to find what I was passionate about, I had to leave my current situation and put myself into different ones.
Start doing things outside of my comfort zone - The second big decision I made was to make myself do many things that I used to avoid. This included getting more involved in different activities and situations, getting to know and understand different types of people, and getting myself to face new challenges.
I wanted to pursue a business career. I wanted to know what other industries and job functions might suit me better, so I needed to explore these every day. To do this, I had to overcome my fears and uncertainties. I knew this would require a constant effort and push to get myself to seek out and engage new situations.
Recognize the true risk of my situation – The reality was that pursuing a business career meant that I was going to meet many new challenges. I’d likely make mistakes, and even fail at times. So the biggest risk was going to be to my ego. But I had to face this in order to learn faster and become something different.
In the end, my fear of not changing was bigger than my fear of changing. I was scared to death of facing many unknown situations. But what scared me even more was seeing my life continue to pass by with no passion, fulfillment, or goals that I really cared about.
And ultimately, in the worst case scenario, my safety net was that I could always go back. If I ended up being terrible at business, I could always make my living as an uninspired, soul-less engineer. This was something that I’d already proven I could do. But if pursued a dramatic change, there was at least the possibility of finding whatever I was looking for. Viewed this way, what was I really risking by going for it?
Embrace my new journey – Perhaps the most important decision I made was to just embrace the journey and challenge of pursuing a more fulfilling future for myself. Frankly, I had no idea what I was doing, what I wanted to do, or what might happen! But I kept telling myself that there was something courageous about seeking my passion and fighting for my better future. During my toughest times, I’d remind myself that this is the person I wanted to become and the life I wanted to live someday.
Once I made these decisions and acknowledged these realizations, I never looked back. I’m not saying the change was easy. There were many times when I’d get down or feel extremely frustrated about my situation. There were many days when I felt no closer to figuring things out than when I started. In fact, it took a couple of years for me to just to break through the fears and doubts I felt every day. But once I did, everything became a challenge to improve myself and an adventure to enjoy. My life has been this way ever since.
Today, I’m part of the talent industry. I’m an entrepreneur. I am dedicated to helping others pursue their career success. When people meet me, I’m often asked where all my energy and passion comes from. I tell them that, actually, it’s probably five times more than what it was when I was in my 20s. It’s because what I do now, I really enjoy. It brings out the best in me, and has real purpose and meaning to me.
When you’re considering a big change, there are no guarantees that things will turn out well. But if you’re hardworking, persistent, and reasonably smart, then there’s a very good chance that they will. This is what I can assure you based on my experience.