Randy Cantrell

Randy Cantrell is the founder of Bula Network, LLC - an executive leadership advisory company helping leaders leverage the power of others through peer advantage, online peer advisory groups. Interested in joining us? Visit ThePeerAdvantage.com

Episode 141 – Michael Jordan Was A Great NBA Player, But He Failed In Minor League Baseball

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Look over at that cartoon by the great Jerry Van Amerongen. That’s me starting at that road kill squirrel.

Well, that was me, back around the beginning of 2009 (probably much sooner, actually). I had been in the same industry, doing the same kind of work for going on 37 years. Professionally, I was as dissatisfied as I had ever been, but I was still energetic and ambition. In a few months I would turn 52.

It was time for an encore career.

It was time for what Marc Freeman, the founder of Encore.org calls “the big shift.”

I’d been pondering such things for a long time. I can’t be sure for how long.

By the time Spring rolled around in 2009 it was time.

For the BIG SHIFT.

With one successful career behind me it was daunting to chase success in a new one. It was especially difficult because the new one was undefined. Oh, I had some ideas. And I tried some things. But nothing worked.

Age, maturity and experience have benefits, but they also have a downside.

On one hand I was grounded and stable. I wasn’t one paycheck away from homeless. I was debt free, but I was far from financial independence. That is, I couldn’t just sit back and enjoy my money – because statically, I knew my wife and I would outlive our money. Besides, I wasn’t ready to sit back and enjoy leisure. I don’t think I’ll ever be ready for that. It’s not how I’m wired.

On the other hand, age makes adjusting difficult. And I’m prone to change. Given to embrace it. But there is something to the realization that you have more past than future. That restricts your choices. Practically speaking, older folks tend to approach life in a more reasonable, perhaps less ambitious fashion. Not me.

For me the downside of age, experience and maturity was how I defined myself professionally. When you’ve spent the better part of 4 decades doing something (the same thing) and being something – you tend to feel defined by it. Deep down you realize that your “job” isn’t who you are, but it sure feels that way.

The identity decompression took much longer than I planned. It lasted from the Spring of 2009 through the end of 2011. That’s right. Two and a half years passed with me trying to figure things out. Along the way I was podcasting, but I was working…doing work I really didn’t want to do. Feeling as though I had jumped out of the frying pan into the fire.

2011 ended and more shifting happened.

And now, I have more clarity. I’m sure things will continue to morph, but as the Encore.org tagline says, “Encore careers combine purpose, passion and a paycheck.”

I have starred at the road kill and pondered the very thing Bob is wondering. I’ve been driven by the practical realities of the paycheck. Yes, I’ve sold out my fair share and done things that didn’t fulfill me because the money attached was high enough.

Today, more than ever before in my life, I understand how Michael Jordan felt riding on a minor league bus failing at a new game. Just because you made it in one career doesn’t mean you’ll make it another. It can be very tough work to figure out what you’ll do for an encore.

Life is a story. It’s being written daily by our choices and actions. But first, it starts in our head – wondering whether we shouldn’t do more with our remaining days. Some of us have fewer remaining days than others. We have to get busy.

Thank you for listening. I’ll do better by you in the future!

 

P.S. Maybe it’s fitting that today’s show lacks production elements due to one of the PreSonus FireStudio Project firewire interfaces failing. Lord willing, I’ll send it off, have it repaired and all will be back to normal Inside The Yellow Studio. Well, as normal as things ever are around here.

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Episode 140 – How Breaking Bad Changed My Life: When Who You Are Is No Longer What You Want To Do

Podcast: Download | Non-Flash Playback

We use a variety of terms to talk about it.

Pivot.

Morph.

Adapt.

Iterate.

Adjust.

If we’re wise, given enough time and introspection…we figure a few things out. Just a few things, mind you. The most brilliant among us can figure out many things, but I’ve never stood among those folks. I’m out here hanging with you, and the rest of the people trying to figure things out.

Some of us figure things out enough to make some changes that will alter our performance. Slight or major, we adjust things and the outcome is different from what we’d been experiencing. We’re onto something. And we know it. Hopefully, it’s quickly noticeable.

A rare few stumble toward a level of success they may have never imagined. They soar. Above most all the rest. They go sky high.

Leaving some of us jealous. Envious.

While leaving others of us with evidence that it can be done…and if they can do it, then why can’t we? That’s the fool’s gold in the quest for the key to success. We falsely believe that outliers are the norm and wonder where we’ve gone wrong. All the while, unaware that we may not be going wrong at all. We just need to keep pushing, not forgetting to adjust.

So many variables are in play making the key to success so evasive. So much noise. So many distractions. We’re all kittens in a world filled with balls of yarn!

Natural aptitude. Desire. Skill. Connections. Timing. Experience. These all contribute to our performance.

And then there’s the magic of serendipity.

Or known by a more common term, luck.

Our egos often prevent us from giving luck more credit. It must be us. Yes, that’s it. It’s all us. We’re special. We beat all the others. We did what they could not. There’s no way luck was involved. All skill, baby! Right. Dream on, dude/dudedette.

Up’s and down’s. Toiling. Battling all the adversity. Trying hard to figure it all out and feeling like we’re running into a wall, over and over and over.

I wish I could tell you it gets easier over time, but who am I? A middle-aged guy who has made it a time or two. Assuming that it is money. And assuming that it is money sufficient enough to not have to worry much financially.

That doesn’t mean I can tell you how to do it. Fact is, it doesn’t even mean I can do it again.

The real issue – for the past couple of years – has been HOW do I want to do it? Enter a new word not listed up there at the beginning, reinvent. That’s hard. Really hard.

It begins with another difficult word – redefine. The HOW has been my approach, but when you really boil it down it’s really WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE and maybe most importantly, WHY.

Beginning journalism classes learn to ask and answer those word questions in order to fill in the blanks of a story. But those word questions serve each of us. The answers to those define our lives. Professional and personal.

For the better part of four decades I made my living in business, particularly in running the businesses of other people. Retail companies. Managing inventories, purchasing, merchandising, advertising, marketing, sales and payroll. Lots of moving parts. Complex businesses.

Along the way I’ve helped a few other people – namely, business owners – figure out ways to do things better. Years of business problem solving fueled my propensity for strategic thinking.

Sometimes the key to success isn’t to repeat what once worked, but to realize that what you once did and found rewarding…is no longer rewarding enough.

It’s time to break. Walter White decided to break bad by becoming Heisenberg. No, I’m going to start cooking meth, but I am breaking from my previous direction. Today’s show pulls back the curtain to share with you this change.

Mentioned in today’s show:

Free Agent Nation by Daniel Pink
BarCodeRadio.net
LogHomeRadio.com
LeaningTowardWisdom.com

 

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