If you let your career run off-leash, where would it go? by Sally Hogshead

If you let your career run off-leash, where would it go?

November 13th, 2006

Since May, I’ve been letting my career rove to and fro. Consciously, I chose to make no plans or goals, do no outreach or inquiry, and instead, simply respond to the clients and opportunities that presented themselves.

This experiment led me to people and places and possibilities that I’d normally never encounter. I became a brand manager for a celebrity, outlined a new book concept, developed two reality TV shows, and created a new kind of speaking program that’s marketing + entertainment. And that was just October.

While I don’t often recommend being a spectator to your own career, at certain points you have to consciously choose to roam. Take your career out to stretch its legs, to exercise and explore. Send it out on adventures. Give it room to fail. Let it get nice and dirty. Let it live. Find the hole in the fence, escape to new places, then decide whether or not you’ll return.

Along the way, your choices don’t all have to be perfect (and in a well-lived career they won’t be). The point is to make those choices for yourself, rather than having them made for you.

Your career is robust. Probably far more than you realize. Don’t overprotect it, or shelter it, or underestimate it. Don’t let it get too precious.

A career, like most things in life, can’t be simultaneously developed and preserved.

Are you ready to put the pedal to the metal???