The Evolution of Life...

I was watching a gardening program on HGTV the other morning, and this particular show had a segment that profiled three women who formerly worked in the corporate world, but who gave it all up in mid-life to become professional gardeners. All three women had very successful careers in the corporate world, but each felt that something was missing in their lives after so many years. They didn't find corporate life and the associated daily grind satisfying anymore. One woman mentioned sitting in endless unproductive corporate meetings daydreaming about working in her garden on the weekend. She said that thinking about her garden and gardening during her work week helped her cope with her growing dissatisfaction with corporate life until she eventually realized that she could no longer continue on with her corporate job. She did a lot of soul searching and reprioritizing and gave it all up. All three are glad of their decisions, but also grateful for the time and skills that they learned in their corporate lives. They just recognized that for each of them that it was time to move on. What was at one time exciting and satisfying had become boring and burdensome. I found their stories so fascinating because I could relate to everything that they were saying!

I remember deciding to become a geologist because I thought it would be a good way to combine my interest in science with my love of the great outdoors. I also remember back to my senior year in college at age 24 in a field class sitting on a mountain ridge in New Mexico mapping the geology of this particular area. It was a beautiful spring day in New Mexico. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and the color was an electric blue...so deep and rich. It was so quiet and peaceful, and a short distance away a small herd of mule deer wandered by. There was a moment while sitting there that I thought it would be so awesome having a place and a view like this every day for my office. Oh how naive and romantic I was at 24!! Sure once I became a geologist I had the opportunity to work outside, but not as I had envisioned!! Like most geologists, my fieldwork didn't include the vistas like those of my field mapping days, but were more practical locales such as a gas station or bulk fuel terminal or manufacturing company. I had to adjust my romantic notions standing on a gas station property behind a mobile drill rig looking at bubba driller's butt crack while collecting subsurface soil and water samples to determine if the gas station's tanks had leaked. Yep, not quite what I envisioned, but I made the best of it! I learned that I had to enjoy the vistas driving from one end of Tennessee to the other or whatever State I happened to be working in, and not at the job site!

I also found later that the better the geologist that you are, the more likely that you'll be in the office preparing maps and reports. Luckily at that time, I found that I truly enjoyed report writing and I had always enjoyed preparing maps. And like many professions, if you're really good at what you do you get placed in the management track where you'll do less and less of what you started out to do in the first place.

So when that woman on the gardening show talked of sitting in endless, unproductive meetings, I could relate. I remember back four years ago sitting in on one unproductive conference call after another only to find my own mind drifting to thinking about the weekend and my own garden...and thinking about what home projects I was going to do next. I realized like those other women that I was coming to the end of the natural evolution of my own corporate career. And one year later, my own corporate experience came to an end. It was time and I was more than ready to move on.

I took several months off and did absolutely nothing except work around the house and the yard while spending time with my sons. It was just what I needed, and then the opportunity to go into business for myself came about. It's been two years this month that I went into business with Sarah and Brad. No more conference calls or stupid meetings. I get the same amount of work done in less time since I don't have the corporate inefficiencies to deal with. I have no boss and am free to make all decisions on my own without a committee. Since I work from home, I can be at my desk early and still in my jammies, if I choose. My work hours are flexbile, and I can be watering my garden while talking to a subcontractor or client on the phone. If I want to do some pro bono environmental work for the local women's shelter or humane society, I can with no questions asked and no permission from corporate needed. I'm really enjoying my new business life as scary and challenging as it is some days!

So like the women on the show, I'm grateful for the skills and lessons that I learned during my time in Corporate America. I also freely admit that I was ambitious and found it exciting for a time. I think it was an invaluable and necessary time for me. I learned a lot about myself and my expectations. The lessons that I learned resulted in a lot of good personal growth. Don't get me wrong, I don't think that corporations per se are bad. There are plenty of good ones, but the corporate life is not for everyone. And for me, I think that I simply outgrew the corporate life like those women gardeners. Now they apply their corporate skills to their gardening much in the same way that I apply the skills that I learned to my own business. In the end, I'm grateful for my time in the corporate world because if not for that, I would not have the necessary skills to have started my own business. And one day I may outgrow my business and be ready once again to move into a new phase of my business life. Who knows, one day I may just give it all up to have an ice cream cart at the beach!!