How I failed at Corporate America
Topic: Business, Personal
Time Investment: 5 Minutes
Suggested Product: BizRevamp®
Sitting at a cubicle staring into my fourth cup of coffee (no judgment y’all) was not what I wanted. I had awesome co-workers. wonderful pay. freaking amazing benefits. But all I wanted to do was Office-space-style the copy machine every single time I found myself mindlessly running copies for someone else.
“This is what you’re supposed to do” I told myself. You finish high school, graduate college, and get a “big girl” job that your parents can proudly tell all their friends about with a grin the size of the Cheshire Cat’s.
I had that. In fact, I even had a corporate job that was giving me flexibility to handle my two-year old son’s schedule while my husband was on deployment number-I-have-lost-count-by-this-time to Iraq.
So why did I feel like a complete and utter failure at Corporate America?
Because it wasn’t meant for me. I wasn’t cut from the corporate cloth.
*sigh* Oh well….maybe I haven’t given it enough time. Besides, I can’t quit because they are paying for graduate school. So I continued on – attending meetings, punching the clock, and even being the annoying co-worker insisting on daily lunches out of the office – just for a little escape and camaraderie.
So I continued on in the corporate environment. Unhappy. Even though it was supporting the military forces (a great desire of mine), I knew that there had to be more than this. There had to be a job that had no ceiling. That I could bust through any cap that society deemed to place on me.
If I wanted to make more money one month I could.
If I wanted to get the praise for my works, then I would receive it – not my boss.
If I wanted to simply skip off and take time for my family – I could without the nerve-wracking pit in stomach when requesting time off from a higher-up.
There had to be more.
And I’m the happiest I have ever been.
So did I fail at Corporate America? Or did Corporate America fail me? It doesn’t really matter. All that matters is that I chose to break free from what was expected and do what I knew would make me happy.
So I did it. I quit. I developed myself into my own business. I thought I had this genius idea of helping small business owners, particularly military spouses, with their businesses. I had the MBA. and then the law degree and bar certification. Little did I know that many others were doing it already. Apparently they got the memo at their corporate desk long before I did. Or else mine got lost in the shuffle of the paperwork and spreadsheets and I was too miserable to notice.
Either way, I fell behind the curve but I didn’t let that stop me.
So I hustled. And I still hustle. It never ends. But that doesn’t matter even on the worst days. Because now I took this “failure” and made it an opportunity to grow.
To make that mark.
To help others.
To be here for my kids.
And most importantly, to be happy.
Share this
Popular posts
