Well, I’m not 30 yet, but I will be in 2 weeks.
(As a quick aside, my older sister turned me onto this site and felt I would fit in, for my birthday she is purchasing my year subscription!)
When I finished high school I figured my life would go down the normal path. I was off to the local college (Marshall University in Huntington, WV) and my career would be waiting for me as soon as I received my diploma. I would likely meet the woman of my dreams and … by 30! … have a house, a family, and 2 dogs.
As it turned out, I hadn’t the slightest clue what my life would be like. I couldn’t really figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up, so I switched majors as often as I switched underwear. I ended up quitting college after 2 years and nothing useful gained from it. I moved away, back home… rinse, repeat. I finally landed a job as a clerk with my dad’s company (a kitchen product supplier) and figured I could make a career out of it, not realizing I was barely using the skills I actually possessed or understanding how to fulfill my real potential.
Then I got hurt. The injury caused me to miss a lot of work for recovery, and by the time I was ready to go back full time, they didn’t really have my position open and just kind of stuck me in a back office not doing anything. I was demoralized and very depressed. I left that job and had no clue how I could possibly get things back in order.
I took a job as a bank teller and excelled at cross-selling and referring bank products. I was scouted by a manager of Smith Barney and I took their hiring assesment test. With no real understanding of how the stock market works or the concepts of investment banking, I scored very high. Very, very high. With my natural charisma and lifelong ties to the area, I could easily carve a niche for myself and establish a good client base. They practically fell over themselves offering me a position. Now I am going back to school to study accounting and finance, and I have found that not only does it seem to come naturally to me, I absolutely love it.
At 18 I would’ve never dreamed math, crunching numbers, and critical analysis of said math and numbers, would be my strongest asset. At 20 I wouldn’t have… at 25 I still would’ve had the blinders on. I always knew I was good at math and I also knew that I had the ability to do math in my head on levels that most people won’t attempt without a pen and paper, and the rest won’t even consider without a calculator, but I never felt it was a true skill… I always just figured it was math! I particularly didn’t think that without that college degree I could step into the position of a professional and be just as capable and productive as the guys 5 years younger than me that had figured it out way back when, even if they need the pens, papers, and calculators.
I remember as a kid I used to always wonder what I was truly “good” at. I had friends that rode dirt bikes and won big national events, and friends that rode horses in shows, and friends that could fix a car, and friends that went hunting and bagged big game, and friends that just always seemed like they had some area where they were the expert, even if I enjoyed doing those things as a hobby. I wondered if I had somethng like that too. It’s a shame that I didn’t hone in on it 10 years ago, but 30 is still young!
Any other similar stories of self-discovery in a less-than-traditional way?
