Reinventing Yourself

Are you having second thoughts about your chosen occupation? Should you consider reinventing yourself? History is replete with examples of reinvention.

On last week's new SyFy hit Warehouse 13, Fowler of the Regents said, "John Adams was a farmer. Abraham Lincoln was a small town lawyer. Plato and Socrates were teachers. Jesus was a carpenter. For one to equate wisdom with occupation is, at best, insulting." We should respect jobs as honorable work whether it is the company CEO or the company janitor. We should also respect that many people are comfortable being in one job, or field, all of their life. Indeed, as Fowler said, wisdom and occupation are not interchangeable. However, we do have examples above of people who have reinvented themselves from their original jobs to become the historic icons we know today. What did it take? Desire, dedication and talent!

In August, my wife and I were at the at Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery having a picnic, drinking great wine and watching Elvis Costello in concert. As I listened to him, I thought of how he had reinvented himself over the years. Who would have thought a British punk rocker would have musical success in genres of country, soul and, yes, even on a Fall Out Boy CD? He has co-written many popular jazz songs with his wife the incomparable Dianna Krall. He wrote a critically acclaimed full-orchestral work that is a ballet based on Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream." On my I-Touch, his "Painted From Memory" CD with Burt Bacharach remains my favorite ballads playlist.

When I was the Bank of America Investment Health Care Analyst, I met Kevin Sharer. Kevin was a Naval Lt. Commander with a degree in aeronautical engineering but was too impatient to wait to become head of the submarine service. He left the Navy, joined AT&T and earned his MBA as a stepping stone to a high profile job at General Electric. Like many GE execs, Kevin went on to greater success in an entirely different field by joining Amgen in 1992 and becoming the biotech giant's CEO.

Babe Ruth was a Boston Red Sox star pitcher who held the World Series record for consecutive shutout innings pitched. When he was traded to the New York Yankees, his hitting talent took precedent. The Yankees reinvented him as an everyday player and he, in turn, reinvented the game of baseball as "The Sultan of Swat" by setting home run records for years to come.

Ronald Reagan was a sports broadcaster before he took up acting. His oratory and communication skills took him to the Governorship of California and Presidency of the United States.

Ben Stein was a poverty lawyer, a trial lawyer, an economist for The Commerce Department and a university adjunct for three colleges before becoming a well-known actor (Beuller? Beuller? Beuller?). Ben didn't stop at acting as he has become a successful TV pitchman, a screenwriter and a news columnist and a prolific writer of both fiction and non-fiction novels.

However, reinvention is fraught with risk and not always successful. Remember Garth Brooks becoming rock and roller Chris Gaines? How about Mariah Carey's movie "career" when she starred in "Glitter?" Did you study successful PepsiCo exec John Sculley's debacle at Apple? Lest we forget, five words: Michael Jordan, professional baseball player!

Often, reinvention comes out of despair or failure. One might simply be "Blowing in the Wind" working in a bad situation, so to take liberties with that Bob Dylan song, "How many roads must a man walk down, before he realizes he is lost?"

As an example, for the (probably three or four) St. Louis Cardinal fans out there, Rick Ankiel was a promising pitcher who suddenly and mysteriously lost pitch control. Facing failure as a pitcher, he reinvented himself as an outfielder. That meant demotion to the minors to learn his new craft. Through hard work, dedication, desire and talent, Ankiel returned to "The Show" with daredevil fielding, timely hitting and a story that is now the stuff of legends.

As a caveat, you could become burned out in your job, even though you do not want to leave it. It can become a struggle to survive. Yet, the best move may not be reinvention. It could be you just need to be patient and get through the rough patch. The French scientist George-Louis Leclerc de Buffon said, "Genius is nothing but a great aptitude for patience." In effect, the best move could be no move at all.

Do you need to reinvent yourself? Will you reinvent yourself if the situation calls for it? Are you content to be in a long-term niche? Or are you the one who is always looking for a new challenge, even though it means crossing over to a new field? Is your college major the appropriate one for you? Do you need additional schooling? Did you not get the promotion you wanted? Did economic weakness turn your dream job into vaporware? All of these could be questions you face in the coming years.

How can you start to reinvent yourself? Take a true assessment of your talents. Know what your skillsets are. Assess where your skillsets are strong and where they are deficient. If you need more education, then build it into your plan. Stay in touch with your contacts. Network. Find mentors. Ask yourself what type of job is the most satisfying and which is the most rewarding? Satisfying and rewarding may not be the same. What drives you--money, ego? Have a gameplan. Stay focused on the big picture. Be patient in making the decision to reinvent yourself and, if you decide to reinvent, take a longer-term view in doing so.

Above all, reinvention will require a considerable amount of self-reflection in your life. Are you prepared to handle candid, critical self-reflection?