HEADLINES from Business Mentors, Inc.

 

What is HEADLINES?

 

 

HEADLINE: BE YOUR OWN BOSS!

 

Frequently, I have appointments with individuals, some from the corporate world and others from professional backgrounds, who tell me that they just can’t take working for someone else any longer.   Let’s face it, unless you work for yourself, you’ll always have a boss!  Even the CEO has to answer to a Board of Directors, and the successful attorney has to comply with the desires of the Partners.  Such is life in our corporate and professional worlds.

 

WORK, WORK, WORK…

 

Trevor came to me three years ago, just after celebrating his 42nd birthday, seeking a change in his professional life.  He wanted to get as far away from the practice of law as possible.  When questioned, he admitted that he had only attended law school at his father’s insistence.  For the past 20 years, he had established himself in the community as a legal expert in wills, trusts and real estate closings, but he had now reached a point where he didn’t even want to go into the office.  In spite of his good work, the partners continued to pressure him for more work - more hours.  He assured me that he had made one very important commitment to himself:  Given the chance, he was never going to work for anyone else, and he was going to find a new direction that gave him immense pleasure.

 

LET’S HAVE SOME FUN

 

Trevor had felt trapped, and that feeling had totally immobilized him.  While he had other interests outside of his professional career, including cooking and photography, he just couldn’t take action on putting together a strategy to move forward on his desire for change.  He couldn’t see “the forest for the trees”.  Trevor had thoughts in the past of attending culinary school but he had convinced himself that he was too old to return to school.   However, his research surprised him when he discovered how many culinary school attendees were middle-aged career changers.  He completed his coursework and found himself armed with new skills BUT he had no place to demonstrate them.  He was “all dressed up with no place to go”.

 

 

COUNSEL FROM THE COACH

 

Sometimes the answer is right in front of you.  It just takes an objective individual to help you find it.  I counseled him on the value of reaching out to his network for contacts in the culinary world and assisted him in developing strategic networking approaches where he could gain feedback from culinary professionals on opportunities to pursue. 

 

By using this approach, Trevor was introduced to an American, a former hotel manager, looking for a partner to invest in a small chateau in the south of France.  While the American possessed a great depth of experience in the operational side of the hotel industry, he lacked Trevor’s culinary knowledge.   Today, Trevor lives in the south of France and is a co-owner of this lovely chateau where he surprises guests daily with his culinary delights. 

 

He is his own boss and loving it!

 

Invest in Yourself,

 

Al Stewart

President/Owner

 

 

Business Mentors, Inc. is a career management organization that was founded in 1995 by Al Stewart, a former corporate executive with background in the transportation and communications industries with such industry leaders as Eastern Airlines, AT&T, GTE and Sprint and an educational background in Adult Education.  His firm, Business Mentors, Inc., offers a broad range of services focused on successful management of professional careers including:  Career Exploration, Career Transition, Career Outplacement, Becoming an Entrepreneur, Executive Development and International Transition.  With a powerful record of success using counseling, consulting and motivation of over 3500 executives in the past ten years, the firm founded the executive coaching movement and continues to enhance its reputation as one of the leading and most highly regarded career management firms in the country.  For more information about our services or questions regarding how we can assist you, please consult our website:  www.business-mentors.com   Or, you can choose to email us at alstewart@business-mentors.com  or call our offices (Atlanta, Fort Lauderdale or Paris, France) at our global number:  404.644.8618.  Our associates are available in person at one of our three offices or via teleconference worldwide.

 

*While we hope that you will enjoy each edition of HEADLINES, you can choose not to subscribe to this publication by simply addressing an email to HEADLINES@business-mentors.com and writing “UNSUBSCRIBE” in the subject line.