In the 1950s and 1960s, on average, people made three career changes in their lifetime. In 2024, that figure is closer to 12.
The limited change in career path was largely due to the desire for security that certainty brings—certainty of knowledge, certainty of continued employment, and certainty of a secure future.
It was also due to the limited number of career choices. As an apprentice builder, I had two options: residential or commercial. Now, there is also mixed-use, institutional, industrial, civil, and many more.
Changing careers from being a builder to join the New Zealand police was a simple choice for me, I never truly enjoyed building and had always wanted to be a cop.
Leaving the police at the age of 57 to start another new career was more difficult and an emotional decision. This choice was fraught with risk for who would employ a 57-year-old with only two previous careers?
Having enjoyed being the lead instructor on the Police Negotiation Team (PNT) crisis negotiator's course it was a no-brainer, start my own coaching business.
With nothing more than a website, a laptop, a badly constructed PowerPoint presentation and a lot of enthusiasm – WARN International was born.
Something I hadn't considered was the emotional toll it would take to develop a business. How hard can it be, simply build it and they will come. Wrong!
It took a lot of hard work mixed with determination and loads of courage. A few weeks before leaving the police a behavioural psychologist asked – “Have you run a risk analysis to see if your business will be successful?”
I panicked, what’s a risk analysis?
What if I fail?
What if this doesn't work?
What if I can't provide for my family?
What if…
Looking back, I doubt that I would have started a business had I run a risk analysis. There were no markets for what I intended to do other than negotiating in challenging situations. De-escalation wasn't really a focus at that time.
Six-months into the business and was in despair, I built it and they had not come! Doing what most people would do I looked for a real job working for someone else.
My wife intervened, “Give it everything for two weeks and then make a decision.”
That was the spark needed to ignite the fire, permission to ignore the risk, to ignore the fear, to ignore all of the emotions and to give it everything without thinking about failing.
I developed a spreadsheet of organisations to work with and started making calls. Then, began meeting with as many people as I could regardless of where it led. It worked.
Fear often holds us back from taking risks, from doing what we know we can do, from being our best self and from achieving all that we desire to achieve.
Sometimes we just need someone else to give us permission to ignore our fears.
Let's talk!
How Many Careers Have You Had?