Millennials do their start-ups. We Baby Boomers are doing start-overs. Actually, with so much disruptions in our industries, either we keep rebranding or we are no longer marketable.
One tool for making a start-over easier is a geographic move. We lift ourselves out of the sand box of the past.
In that box are playing the colleagues, neighbors, family, and friends who pigeon-holed us as being one type of professional. No one is that emotionally strong to buck all that.
In a fresh setting - for me it was the Southwest - I could try out whatever I wanted to. That ranged from a more relaxed persona to a more conversational style of writing.
In addition, I let myself be open to being re-shaped by the environment. No one talks about success here. So, I stopped that. As a result, I could just focus on doing the assignments versus how they might up my chances of making it big. Big isn't big here.
Could I have rebranded in-place in the New York Metro area? Not with the high cost of living. The wolf was always scratching at the door. It seems all professionals, no matter how well they are doing when in proximity to Manhattan, are still a few bucks short. So, we try too hard. Trying too hard prevents the kind of risk-taking necessary for start-overs.
When I lose a night sleep here it isn't because of that scratching sound. It's the rapid flow of ideas about how to get more business and then do those assignments in an amazing way.
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