What Started it All

Six years ago, I received a telephone call that changed my life forever, but let’s rewind a bit. A few years back, I wrote a handful of articles for an online business directory called Our Seniors. Writers won’t be surprised to learn the compensation was meager, and I wasn’t even allowed publishing credit! But I was on cloud nine because those articles started it all. They represented a decades-old dream of becoming published.

How I landed that first writing gig is strange indeed—although in hindsight, I suppose not. It indicates an honest-to-goodness, serendipitous chain of events that only happens in folk tales featuring benevolent fairy godmothers.

There I was, happy as a clam, sitting at my desk working on procuring construction projects for a lead referral company, when my boss called to offer me a “fantastic” opportunity. I was to be switched from Editorial to Sales, and wasn’t I “overcome with joy!”

Hmmm. Oh, goody, I thought—laden with sarcasm, heavy with dread.

As a matter of fact, no, I wasn’t overcome with joy because Sales and I have a precarious relationship.

• Do I have salesmanship qualities? Yes.
• Am I good at it? Yes.
• Do I like it? No!

Salesmanship comes naturally to me, and it’s a necessary trait for anyone employed in procurement—particularly, privately funded construction project information procurement. It’s a mouthful, I know! And it’s a field known for hoarding secrets.

I’ve also worked in various Sales positions, having to fill all sorts of quotas, but those careers never suited me, and I didn’t suit them.

Editorial also required salesmanship and offered a monthly monetary bonus based on production. So, a quota had to be maintained, especially if you had your eye on the bonus prize, which I did, like any other red-blooded American woman working in an upwardly mobile career.

But Editorial was different. I didn’t have to “close the deal” per se. I had to find a way to extract information and exhaust all measures to do so, but in the end, if a door was closed, that was fine; I moved on to the next one.

The freedom was liberating.

Editorial Was a Good Fit For Me

I loved the research, digging for information, and my clients. Scoring new contacts and projects gave me a high. Weird, but true. Furthermore, cultivating relationships within my assigned territory was equally rewarding.

An added benefit was knowing my work granted my customers opportunities. These gateways led them to form new relationships with architects, general contractors, and national companies. I envisioned their companies booming, their employees prospering, and everyone’s families blossoming, all because I brokered one simple connection.

I loved helping others and I still do, but back to the story…

My boss wrapped this shiny new “opportunity” with financial windfalls. He waxed poetic about pay raises and high-yield bonuses. Hmm?

I asked him if I could think about it. He said yes. I had until the next day. Okaaaaaaaay…

But when I reviewed the job description again, I had to be honest with myself. The position didn’t suit me, and I knew it would leave me unhappy in the long run. I concluded that it would be a calamitous move in the chess game of life.

Why would I leave a job I thoroughly enjoyed—and was successful at, per Boss Man’s many written confirmations and employee evaluations—to assume a role I’d absolutely abhor? At the time, it seemed ludicrous, and quite frankly, it still does.

As such, I thanked him for the “opportunity” but, respectfully, declined. All was sunshine and rainbows once again…for a few hours.

The next day, in 95-degree heat, at my son’s baseball game, I received the telephone call that changed my life forever.

“The company has restructured…Editorial position phased out…I have to let you go.”

I Got Fired

In less than a few hours, the entire Editorial Department restructured? (Are you kidding me?)

I needled him:

• Why didn’t you tell me this earlier?
• This information would have (obviously) influenced my decision.
• Why did you give me mere hours to decide?
• Why, Why, Why, Why, Why, Why, Why?

The answer was short and sweet, cutthroat and brutal. “I’m sorry about that, but I really don’t have to answer those questions.”

That was it. With two cold shakes of a lamb’s tail, they unceremoniously put out to pasture, me and my ten years of dedicated service. There’s more to the story and my subsequent ordeal, but it’s full of melodrama, and who needs that?

The point is, today I thank the man for that telephone call.

Well, I thank God, not that man. Even though I know I should let it go, and I mostly have, I could still think of a few choice words for what’s his face. Why? Because I’m a red-blooded American woman, that’s why! But, rest assured, I’m working through my foibles, and I hardly remember what’s his face anymore.

All joking aside, looking back, although I loved that job, I knew its moment had come and gone long before they let me go. I’d been whining to my husband for years that I needed to find something new, that I had to jump onto the next evolutionary stepping stone, THAT I WANTED TO WRITE FOR GOODNESS SAKE! But I was too chicken-sh*t to do anything about it.

God must have wanted the same thing for me, and was sick and tired of my whining. Like any good parent, He tough-loved me right out of that dead-end job with one swift push off the cliff of faith.

“Too frightened to quit, are you?” Here you go…

PUSH!

What Next?

Little did my old boss know, there’d be restructuring, all right!

Without the safety net of an income to fall back on—a misnomer of the grossest kind because, by their very nature, safety nets provide little motivation and keep you caught in a web of your own making—I restructured my life.

There’s more to this part of the story, but I won’t bore you with details. Suffice it to say, with my husband’s support, my children pretty much raised, the youngest being 16, I had nothing to lose, and I took steps at reinvention:

• Launched a transcription side hustle for a little bread & butter
• Learned all about the blogging industry: coding, graphic design, marketing, SEO, etc.
• Honed my writing, rusty from lack of use
• Scored my first writing gig with Our Seniors
• Scored a freelance gig in the local paper a year later
• Started writing my first book

I’m still not making a lot of money, but things are getting better!

I was hilariously green back then, sopping wet behind the ears when I wrote those first few articles for Our Seniors. But I knew I was meant to write, and I built confidence and honed my craft along the way.

It turns out, the benevolent fairy godmother was myself! The serendipitous chain of events are the opportunities that arise and the doors that open when you start saying Yes to life, instead of No.

Following your dream is hard work, and money holds no guarantee, hence the side hustles. However, I was fine with all of that because I had to start somewhere.

There are many treasures to behold when you French Kiss life, and many blessings that come your way. Today, I am a published author, writer, and creative professional, and I love it. And it all started on an ordinary, hot summer day with a fateful phone call.

You never know how life is going to twist and turn, or what the face of opportunity will look like. But if you search within yourself, you will recognize it when you see it and take a chance on yourself.