fortune cookie.1 by laurageorge

This isn’t a Grown-Up Gig per se, but a series of snippits about adults who changed careers – their backstories, their passions, their results & their challenges. NPR’s Take Two: Life Changes stopped in 2006, but you can read a lil’ synopsis & listen to the stories (or read the transcript!) right on the Interweb. Here are some of my favorites:

• An accountant who moved from Seattle to Paris to become a belly dancer
• A corporate director who made a lucrative living jumped ship to start Little MissMatched. This was reported on in 2004, & if you’ve been to a mall lately you know how much this company‘s grown!
• A banker who became a life coach (but maybe I’m a bit biased)
• A research assistant at a lab is now working as a marine observer
• An ER doctor who is now a real estate strategist but plans on possibly writing a book about patient advocacy. She says, “There’s a lot of negotiating that goes on in medicine that people don’t realize, trying to convince patients and families to actually implement your treatment plan, despite the fact that they don’t want to give up on their cigarettes or give up on their grease or, you know, not eat past midnight, you know, really getting buy in of everyone, and real estate is all about getting buy in of all the parties. I find I’m using really the same skill set.”
• A 43-yr-old medical resident who is training to be a doctor, but used to be a forest ranger, a lab tech, a carpenter, a ranch hand & a brew pub owner.

And don’t forget the Listeners’ Letters! How can you not find a 64-year-old salesman who was laid off from his job & decided to become a Level 2 Certified Addictions Counselor inspiring? His wife describes him as “happier in his job than he has been in years.” Obviously, it’s really never too late to go after your passion – or figure out what it is!

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 15th, 2009 at 9:20 am and is filed under Happy Hooplah. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.