There’s something about making a career change at 30 that triggers a lot of emotional responses. It didn’t help that I quit drinking alcohol 6-months ago, although in retrospect, it’s helped a lot. I’ve finally started to learn more about myself, the ways that I’ve been, and why I’ve taken on some of the jobs that I’ve had.
Approaching my 31st birthday, I’ve had some interesting jobs. I’ve helped my parents sell tacos, folded clothes at Hollister, been a bus boy at a couple of restaurants, sold water ionizers, and more recently sold solar door-to-door for 4-years. I also dabbled in internet marketing for some time.
Career Change Realizations
After traveling to 22-countries and escaping my reality, I finally had to take a good look in the mirror and reflect on where my life was at. I wasn’t happy with who I was looking at in the mirror. I wasn’t proud of the decisions that guy was making. I’d wake up dreading the idea of knocking on doors. But come every Tuesday, I’d put on a game face like I was happy to be at the office.
I was physically, mentally, and emotionally at my worst. I really couldn’t remember another time I’d felt this way. I began to ask myself if this was the life I wanted to be living. I had to make a change.
So I made the decision to make a career change. I decided to stop sitting on an online website idea I’d had for 2-years and decided to go gung-ho on the project. I spent about 2-months working full time on the website and the design is pretty much done. Now I’m working on hiring some writers and an online firm to help push my site to gain traction.
I give a lot of credit to the progress I’ve made on the site to the progress I’ve made with my health. Giving up alcohol and cigarettes was the best decision ever. I have more clarity of thought, was in the gym 5x’s per week until covid-19 shut everything down, and am down 16 pounds. I feel great physically and now mentally.
Going All In On A New Career Path
As mentioned previously, I dabbled in internet marketing. I was never 110% committed. I used to have a website all about internet marketing and internet business, but after starting that website I realized that I was just trying to be like everyone else online at the time. I didn’t actually care about how to teach someone how to screen capture their computer, or how to create a pdf for eBook format.
I was pretty much just creating content for the web traffic it would bring me so I could have a YouTube video with a lot of views. Woohoooo. It was stupid. I was just trying to figure out where I fit in, until I realized I needed to stand out. I needed to be myself.
This same mindset set in with the selling of water ionizers and then onto selling solar. I was always trying to fit in with the “squad” or with the “guys.” When deep down I realized I valued technical shit and computer stuff. I slowly but surely discovered that I was a bit of a nerd who enjoyed traveling, the occasional party, and time with close friends and family. I’m the type of dude to live by the beach with his dogs and be content as long as my family was around.
I’ve also come to the realization that I must burn all other bridges and get 110% committed. My attitude now is that this is going to work (my website) come hell or high water. So rather than spend the money I’d made from my previous and last solar deal on dumb shit, I took the funds and made some investments.
Since then I’ve 5x’s my initial investment and am currently sitting on a nice chunk of money. While this sounds nice, there is a price to pay: I’ve moved back in with my parents for the foreseeable future. I’ve given myself a move out date of January 1, 2021 but my parents say I can stay as long as I need.
Creating Deadlines For Change
I find that creating deadlines for your business as well as life created that much needed sense of urgency to make things happen.
Sure I may be broke for a while, am essentially giving up dating, and really any form of socializing but covid is making it all work out in my favor. There technically isn’t anything else to do other than workout and work on my online business. It’s actually a great blessing.
Most people that go through career changes tend to keep the job they have until they find a career they absolutely love. I salute you if that’s you. It takes a lot of huevos to commit to a day-to-day life of dread for what you do while you apply for other jobs, but then again, maybe you just don’t have a choice.
I happen to be one of the few 30-year olds who doesn’t have kids, a mortgage, a car payment, or any debt. My only payments are my cell phone, gym membership, and gas for the car. Which is a hand me down that my parents pay the insurance on. I’m truly blessed to be able to have the ability to be nimble.
Remain Calm, There’s Something Bigger At Work
Feeling lost in your career at 30 is a good thing. It means that you’re meant to do something great with your life, something much bigger than you could have ever imagined. I know that can sound like something out of a Tony Robbins book, but hear me out.
Why would you have thoughts of doing something else?
Where do those ideas even come from?
Why don’t they just go away?
The only answer I can fathom is that it’s your calling. It’s God talking to you, the Universe, your higher self, etc. all telling you to wake the fuck up.
There’s SOMETHING there having you take a look at your situation. It isn’t just a coincidence, especially if it keeps showing up.
You see as humans, we have this ability to adapt, and overcome. There’s something within each of us that makes us high achievers. The thing is, not everyone acts on it. Some people feel it, then decide that it’s not for them.
They just accept that the career they have is just the way it is. They’re told to be grateful and simply go along through life drifting.
The late Kobe Bryant said something very profound that still moves me till this day that I’d like for you to take a moment and digest..
“Those times when you get up early and you work hard, those times when you stay up late and you work hard, those times when you don’t feel like working, you’re too tired, you don’t want to push yourself, but you do it anyway. That is actually the dream. That’s the dream. It’s not the destination, it’s the journey.”
— Kobe Bryant
Kobe realized at the end of his career that the celebratory moments of winning championships were short in comparison to the seemingly mundane repetitiveness of getting up early, working hard, training, staying late, and doing it all over again.
The key to this quote is that you are working towards mastering whatever your love is. Kobe Bryant loved the game of basketball and he loved the competitive nature.
Loving Your Work or Growing To Love It?
I won’t bore you with a rant on doing what you love. What I’ll say instead, is to find that thing you’re willing to get competitive with. That thing where you can maximize your full potential and that you can grow to love.
Find that thing and do that. Chances are you already know what it is. And if you don’t, you’re 30! You’re still very young. You don’t always have to love what you do initially but you can grow to love it. But if you find that you aren’t loving it, it’s okay to change. You only get one life.
For example, while I made great money doing door-to-door solar, I wasn’t maximizing my potential as a human being and therefore wasn’t happy. I was dying inside with every day that I knocked. I had this vast knowledge of internet marketing knowledge and here I was knocking on doors.
It felt like I was going back to the dark ages, using archaic—although still effective—sales strategies. I felt capped on a human potential level. I looked around at the dudes I was surrounding myself with and asked myself if these individuals were living the life I wanted to be living, and the answer was no.
The decision to make a career change at 30 is as much about lifestyle as it is about the career itself. Take a look at the career you’re in, find the oldest person there, and ask yourself if that’s the life you want to have. If not, then it’s time to change.
It’s Never Too Late For A Career Change
It’s never too late to go out and do what you enjoy or what you think you could try to enjoy. You’ve just got to do.
Yes, maybe you’ll have to move back in with your parents, or stay at the job for a few more months to save up, sell the car, the house, downsize, or even get roommates again.
It’s as much as what you’re willing to give up, more than what it is you want. There’s always something that’s gotta give.
As a 30-year old who’s burned all other bridges of possibility and has committed to his new career path as an internet businessman, this is the career guidance you’ve been looking for.
Develop a financial strategy, layout your roadmap to get that new job, to start that online business, food truck, personal training business, or whatever it is you choose to do and go all in.
It’s better to be at peace with yourself and at war with the world, than at war with yourself and peace with the world.
Stay true to yourself, follow your gut, and enjoy the journey.
Go live your dream.