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.
