Future Proof by Diana Wu David

Author:Diana Wu David
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: BookBaby
Published: 2018-12-19T22:40:59+00:00

Proactive Reinvention: Finding Change Before It Finds You

Sometimes reinvention occurs in response to external circumstances, such as a downsizing or technological change in an industry that eliminates your job or makes it less interesting. Other times, it is a proactive decision to seek out new perspectives. One way that is becoming more common is to “zoom out” in order to see new opportunities via time away from work. Consider Stefan Sagmeister, who runs his own marketing company in New York City and who has become famous for his unique take on traditional learning and work life. We spend twenty-five years of our lives learning, forty years working, with fifteen years left for retirement. His idea is to cut five years of retirement and intersperse them throughout the working years. Every decade, give or take, he takes a year off to maximize that time and invest in creativity, coming back with new ideas for his business and life.6

Elaine Cheung is a CFO who has changed industries and gone from being a music executive to working in pharmaceuticals and then retail, and along the way, adapted her approach to transitions within her career.

Her first “reinvention sabbatical” came after a restructuring. She felt very vulnerable but had enough time away to realize her skills could be applied more broadly, and then confidently moved into a completely new industry. The trouble was, she realized in retrospect, she hadn’t really maximized her time off for the next stage in her career. Roughly a decade later, corporate restructuring triggered another sabbatical. Despite being the bread winner with three children under three years of age, she decided to turn this unfortunate situation into a positive experience. With a goal to explore whether she could combine meaningful purpose within work and career, she leveraged her experience and seniority to volunteer for an NGO called Community Business that works with large companies, where she focused on women on boards. This was an opportunity for her to meet people in the community, broaden her network, and advocate for women in leadership. It was very important to her, because when she dug into her values and contributions beyond her job, she realized she could have an impact. She wanted to be a role model, in a position to impact women coming up the pipeline. She could teach them about leadership and how to be a boss. On the networking side, it was extremely fortuitous, and she got her next job through those contacts, as well as several board seats, including on the audit committee of United Nations’ World Food Programme, based in Rome. She’s now a CFO for an aquaculture company, a spinoff from the owners of her old company whose restructuring triggered her first ever sabbatical. She is currently investing in her public speaking skills to take her advocacy to the next level.

There are few leaders doing what Elaine accomplished. She made a conscientious choice to learn something new, network strategically, and fulfill her broader value of giving back by being a role model and speaking about her journey.

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