Part 5 "Detours are not Derailments": Detour to Destiny: How Leaving My Career Led Me to My True Calling as an Entrepreneur

I had high levels of anxiety, no plan B, and just enough savings to live off of for a couple of months.

I am a planner. Always have been and always will be. But when I left in the middle of my third year of teaching with no plan other than to exit it was easy to think I was going crazy. But I knew something had to shift. I could not keep doing what I was doing.

My goal or “destination” was to have work that allowed me to experience work-life balance and pursue my other dreams and goals. Teaching had been an avenue for that for a short period of time. But not long after, I experienced more anxiety and stress to keep up with the needs of the job than I did the benefit of working with that job in my desired lifestyle. And when I was physically falling apart from the stress that’s when I decided something had to change.

On my journey to having work that allowed me to experience work-life balance, leaving teaching was a detour. One of the best in my life. I decided to pursue my Master’s degree and open an online business. This business would grow to allow me to connect with high-level CEOs across America, build a team, and allow me the time, freedom and flexibility to pursue other passions.

It was scary. It seemed to move slowly at first. And I had no guarantee that this risk would be worth the reward. But regardless of the detour of leaving teaching, I knew I had to take a different route to have the work-life balance I dreamt of for myself. 

And when I was left with no option, success became my only one.

Now I am the founder and CEO of an elite concierge executive company that allows me the work-life balance I always wanted and with my other passions I am just getting started. It took a detour to get me here, but boy, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Had I stayed in teaching it would have limited my reach and cost me opportunities I’ve had since being flexible. And to be clear, I am not knocking teaching at all, in fact, my mom is an educator- she’s been teaching for 35 years and is still teaching. 

But for me, taking a detour from teaching into entrepreneurship became that missing piece that helped me to get to my desired outcome and I couldn’t be happier.

If you find yourself feeling “lost” in the zig zags of life keep in mind that this could just be a detour in disguise- still leading you on your way- and necessary for you to get where you want to go even if you didn’t foresee it.