“I can do anything, better than just about anyone.”
“I can do anything, better than just about anyone.”If this sounds like the half-baked cockiness of a kid who thinks she knows everything and intends to take on the world to prove it, you’d be right.
This was me, way back when.
Growing up in Minnesota, I knew I was destined for warmer climates. So when I applied to colleges, I zeroed in on the only journalism school south of the Mason-Dixon Line. A month after high school graduation, I was in Florida.
I’ll never forget the trip – one suitcase, my portable typewriter (in name only; the thing weighed a ton and got heavier each time I changed planes) and $500 in my pocket. No place to live. No friends waiting for me. No job.
What was I thinking?
“I can do anything…”
I got off the plane in Gainesville to dense humidity that clung to the back of my neck like a hot, wet blanket. Other shocks followed – the incredibly diverse population, the incomprehensible local accents, and even the vegetation were galaxies beyond what this sheltered girl had ever experienced.
But I didn’t know I could fail. I found a job. I found a place to live. And I made friends.
I learned as much outside the classroom as I did inside during those four years at the University of Florida. I was able to decipher the accent. I met people from all over the world, and, yes, I did pretty much all the stupid things every college student does…and still managed to get my degree in journalism.
While still in college, I was recruited to come to the Florida Keys – which I’d never even heard of – with a group of my fellow journalism grads to take over an ailing alternative weekly newspaper in Marathon.
So with all my earthly belongings crammed into the back of my cantankerous ’65 Mustang, I headed south. This life transition was easier – I had a job and friends who would now be my co-workers – but the Keys are like nothing I’d ever experienced.
The spider-legged roots of mangrove trees crowded the two-lane highway. Narrow bridges connected dots of island, spanning aqua-emerald stretches of water so clear I could see the bottom, even from hundreds of feet. And that indescribable, fresh, tangy scent of the sea that still moves me, nearly 40 years later.
I was hooked.
The newspaper job lasted nine months (the paper too much in the red to recover), and there I was, still new to town, friends and colleagues off to other locales and no job. Even though there were no jobs in my field, I elected to stay in the Keys.
While working at an insurance agency for about a year, I “volunteered” at the other local newspaper in my time off. When a job opened up at the paper, that experience put me in front-runner position for the slot.
Sitting across from the editor during that job interview, I told him:
“I can do anything, better than just about anyone.”
I got the job at that newspaper, part of Knight Ridder Newspapers (now McClatchy), the second largest newspaper group in the country. It was my professional home for the next 18 years. Every time I thought about moving on, I got a promotion or an award or something new and exciting was tossed into my work week. I worked my way up from part-time production (building the paper) and part-time reporter to editor.
Along the way, I’d married, but 18 years on, that relationship was dying and the job…well, I remember sitting at my desk one night, crying my eyes out, hoping someone would see the midnight light burning and stop, ask me what was wrong.
Time for change
It was time for another change.
With nothing to lose, I wrote a letter to a big cheese at my company’s corporate headquarters in California, asking to be considered for a job there. I pulled out all the stops, brought my years of wordsmithing to bear in a letter that was edgy, funny and challenging.
“I can do anything, better than just about anyone.”
Miracle of miracles – it got me an interview. Unfortunately, I’d already accepted an editing job at a daily newspaper in South Carolina. So in my 40s, I packed up all my belongings again (including one very unhappy cat) and set up a new life in Myrtle Beach.
Saddled with enormous debt and taking a 40 percent pay cut, I worked three jobs. One combined two loves — journalism and training: I helped create the journalism minor at Coastal Carolina University, and was its first (and only) instructor. I taught bleary-eyed students at oh-dark-thirty twice a week, so I could be on time for my shift at the newspaper.
After four of the longest years of my life, a newspaper job came open in the Keys. I applied for the position and got it.
I was coming home!
I spent eight years as editor and later associate publisher at that newspaper, but the industry was beset by cataclysmic changes I was not sure it could survive. It was time for something completely different.
When the local chamber of commerce advertised for a new CEO, I thought, “Why not?” At the time, I was immediate past chairman and had served for several years on its board. I had lots of great ideas.
And besides…
“I can do anything, better than just about anyone.”
I got the job, and had so much fun that, in the early days, that my staff would knock on my door at closing, and ask me if I planned to spend the night.
During the next seven years, I joyfully immersed myself in an entirely different culture and learned a great deal about multiple industries. I helped member businesses – everything from national flag hotels to solopreneurs to exporters – market themselves. I gave advice, created new products and events, and grew the membership.
But a few months shy of my 60th birthday, I asked myself, “Is this what I want to do with the rest of my life?”
The answer was no.
Ten years earlier, I’d started my own coaching business, after learning there was a real profession that encompassed everything I’d been doing my entire career. But working on my own business while giving 150 percent in my other occupations just did not work out. It wasn’t just the long hours, but the energy I put into it that left me drained, with no other thought – or desire – than to vegetate in my free time.
I decided, “If I’m going to work this hard, I’m going to work for myself.” So in 2012, I quit my job at the chamber to devote myself full time to building my business.
“I can do anything…”
Thirty years in the communications business in corporate America and nearly seven in a nonprofit business association gave me a strong foundation, and I’ve continued to learn new skills along the way. My proudest achievement: Building my first website from scratch, learning by doing, and talking myself off the ledge when I was about to quit by saying:
“I can do anything…” and so can you.
Note: The image above takes place of pride, just over my computer, where I can see it every day.