Finally finding a few minutes to write! I’ve been mulling over decisions and choices for the future the past couple of weeks. I am constantly weighing the dark reality of a dismal economy and disappointing job projections against my future goals and dreams of pursuing one of those supposed “worthless, high risk” PhD’s, (per the media, fellow academics and just about every expert out there). Who in their right mind could possibly want to be a historian with specialties in Antiquity, the Middle Ages and the Middle East? A person who will learn dead languages serving no value in the business or technology sectors along with a complicated modern language spoken in a high risk region to compliment their Italian? The one writing this very entry is that person. I just hope I can find a program that will take me. 🙂

What can I say? I hate math. I hate science. I can do them well, but my heart simply isn’t in them. Numbers make me cringe unless we are talking money. Instead, I love languages, history, mythology, epic tales and music. I enjoy writing and peeling back layer after layer of cultural onions to learn how that onion truly formed and what its heart looks like. When I got my first degree, I was told it was a dead-end path to follow. Boy, the people who told me that were so wrong. While I didn’t end up a world-famous opera singer or ruling Sony records as a powerful industry exec pushing the label and talent to new heights, I became, in my mind anyways, a pretty nice success story in the Insurance industry. I climbed up from entry-level adjuster to Director over 10 years. The skills I acquired from my Music Management degree were invaluable and served me well. Soft skills just aren’t taught in math, science or accounting classes. They are learned in the Arts and in real life. Don’t get me wrong. We desperately need highly skilled technicians. But we also need dreamers and innovators. We need those that can communicate and create strategic vision and goals for people.

Coming into the real world with a fine arts background, I knew how to relate to people. I knew the type of discipline it took to train for the impossible and strive to reach for the next level. I could look at the obstacles and walls one would encounter working towards impossible goals and not be intimidated. I knew enough about the business world to navigate it and the performer in me knew how to inspire others to achieve. I had the pleasure of holding a coveted leadership position on a management team for the number one customer service leader in the world for consecutive years. I had job security, great employees, supportive mentors and opportunity. I made a salary I certainly would not complain about. However, I traded my family, my health, and the passions I really have in life for that. Is the path I found myself on back then worth it? My honest answer is I don’t know. Some days I would tell you yes, others I would firmly say no. Is the dream most folks have in the corporate world the right one? Guess it all depends on what your priorities are.

I can tell you, I no longer need to be rich, live in a mansion or drive a Ferrari. Well, I haven’t given up on the Ferrari. We all need long-term stretch goals to stay motivated. However, my world won’t end if I never get to set my hands on the leather steering wheel and drive at mind-blowing speeds in my dream car. I also believe more than ever that we can all find what we are meant to do and be successful at it, even with the odds stacked against us. I can hear the cynics reading this scoffing at my words and see them rolling their eyes.

Need proof that it is possible to find your way to be one in a million or find your way out of the darkness? Need help believing that the smallest or greatest dream can be achieved? That the average joe can become greater than that guy dressed in blue with an “S” on his chest?

Here are some real life examples to inspire you:

A once chubby, unknown boy from Jersey, (an island off the English coast, not the state below New York), is now conquering Hollywood, (over 2,000 miles from where he called home), is one of the most in-demand actors and is now being called one of the sexiest men on earth. Give you a hint as to who he is. He portrays the guy with an “S” on his chest described above and his initials are Henry Cavill.

A college drop-out built a computer company from scratch and became one of the most innovative minds the technology world will ever know. His story is hitting the big screen this month.

Too unrealistic to inspire you as you think only 1 in 10 million can do what these two did? Maybe success can be defined at a less extreme level. How about just having food to eat, a roof overhead in a nice neighborhood, a little spending cash and driving a car not on the verge of breakdown? Try this less glamorous example on for size if the two above failed to motivate you and you are striving for just the preceding.

My mother was a divorced, single parent with a partially completed nursing degree. She had two young kids to raise on her own and wondered how she would do it. She went back to school. We struggled at times, but we grew stronger as a family. My mother went on to join the military after completing her degree, retired an US Naval Commander with a distinguished career including a deployment to the Middle East as a field nurse. Was it hard on all involved? Hell yes it was!! Was the journey worth it in the end? She would tell anyone who asked “Definitely!” so would my brother and I.

While we aren’t all destined for fame and fortune as Jobs and Cavill were, we are all still destined to do great things in life. We all have the potential to achieve whatever we really, truly dream of doing if we never give up on it and work through those dark times. That dream or goal will evolve with us as we grow. It also may not play out exactly as planned, but you will find a way to incorporate it into your life. In those moments you are alone and ready to quit, find the inner strength to climb to your feet again. When a helping hand is extended, have faith in its owner and grasp it tightly; allowing them to help you over the wall. Sometimes we don’t see those hands in front of our face or are so lost in our own battles we bite it as it is just reaching out for us.

I will leave everyone with this note. When I look back, my regrets only fall on the times I feared taking risk when an opportunity was extended and my gut told me to jump on it. I also wouldn’t value half of what I have if I hadn’t struggled. If I hadn’t had those breakdowns and heart wrenching moments of incredible doubt, screaming my frustration, hurt and discouragement up at the heavens on my knees. While I hate going back to that place, if it is required to teach me, mold me and thrust me forward by giving me drive that only those who have stood in those places can have, I will dive into the darkness head first praying I come out of it stronger and successful. As I define success versus the world’s definition. And if fate happens to drop a Ferrari in my lap . . . you’re damn right I will find out exactly how loud that engine can rev and how fast that car can really go!