A dozen years ago, I made a difficult exit from a twenty year career in advertising. My wife and I started Bullzi Inc with the idea of following my passion and her experience in developing and mentoring people. We survived and today Bullzi Inc works with organisations across continents and the work has morphed and grown.
Many friends, business associates and acquaintances keep asking me how I managed to make the switch into a second career. Instead of answering this question from only my experience, I chose to talk to a number of other people who had successfully made the switch, others who are great second innings batters – a banker who runs adventure camps for children, a consumer goods CEO who advices people on personal investments, an advertising person who runs a great learning organisation and 15 others.
There are many shades to it and in Part 1 I want to specifically address it for those contemplating a switch that involves doing something on their own. Here are a few things to keep in mind:
Headline Positives – Scoring the winning runs
1. You can follow your dreams. This is enormous! You can actually live your purpose and experience a sense of fulfillment that everyone dreams of. The most successful second innings players that I have come across are marked out by their almost spiritual sense of contentment with what they do.
2. You can be your own boss. No answering to someone who does not get it or is too meddlesome or too political… You can live by the values you cherish.
3. What you create bears your stamp. You are very much the brand or completely integral to the brand. It is yours.
Spoiler Alert – the second innings pitch presents its own challenges
1. Multi tasking like crazy – Forget the corner office and the minions. If you don’t do it, it will not get done – from licking the envelopes to the strategy note. This can present challenges for people who have long been used to super efficient assistants and large teams.
2. Loss of intellectual companionship – On your own you have to bat the idea with yourself, largely. Exposure to different ideas, opinions, influences will reduce. Until you find the network and the ways to deal with it.
3. Maintaining the discipline – With no one to tell you, clock you, look up to you, remaining disciplined about work ethics can be quite a challenge. The luxury of choosing your time to start your work and close it can be quite intoxicating. I have seen people slip simply because they could not keep the shape on their own.
Negotiating the challenges successfully will help greatly in making the second innings the best phase of your life. Pad up, and go score those runs.
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