When There's No Map for Your Path
When I was in high school, there were two study tracks offered - college prep and vocational. At the beginning of my junior year, I went to the guidance counselor and took a career test that didn't have any creative careers outside of teaching as possible results, so I was told my best bets would be things like driving buses, being a handyman, or trash pickup. The counselor was most certain I wasn't college material. Despite that, I did go to college and graduated with a combined degree in music and business. After graduating, I was clueless about how to pursue the career I wanted, so I started working pretty much wherever I could. Over the next ten years, I held eleven different positions with five different employers ranging from warehouse work, to sales, to group home counselor, to gang intervention coordinator, to curriculum developer and trainer, to victim advocate, to crisis center counselor. At the same time, I started my first couple of side businesses in music product...