I sometimes answer business-related questions on LinkedIn that can be addressed with the principles of improvisation. This is one in a series of responses that was deemed ‘Best Answer’ by the questioner…
THE QUESTION: How do you feel about your career?
In June 2000, I felt incredibly “not good” about my job working as account manager for a firm voted as one of the 50 best managed firms in Canada. Even though I was surrounded by wonderful coworkers and supported by the best boss I ever had, I felt intuitively, without being able to explain it, that I was not in my “right” place.
So I committed what could only be called “career suicide” and began an exciting journey to find my true self. Took me 5 years to figure out I truly wanted to become a creative knowledge writer!
What I’ve learned is that one’s inner guidance (which is mostly emotional) cannot fail. Hence, my question above.
If you wish to answer, these words could be helpful in identifying one’s states: worried, bored, hopeful, optimistic, overwhelmed, content, frustrated, discouraged, angry, enthusiastic, happy, eager, passionate, joyous, empowered.
I would be interested also to know WHY you feel as you do.
Feel free to respond privately if you wish. Thanks!
Peter Nguyen
Editor in Chief
CareerKnowledge.net
MY ANSWER:
The part I like best about your statement is when you describe how our ‘inner guidance’ cannot fail. I agree with this wholeheartedly. As the first person in my family to graduate from college, I felt as if I needed to have a ‘legitimate’ job after graduation to show for my degree. So I went to work for a very large (Fortune 100) company that stuck me in the town of Effingham, Illinois, where I was miserable. After eight months, I decided to quit listening to my head, quit acting on what I perceived, rightly or not, as the expectations of others, and instead to follow my heart, and I’ve never regretted it for a second.
I began by doing something I loved. Telling and writing stories. I wrote a humorous history of Notre Dame football. I used my book and my freelance writing samples to get a job in the marketing department at Disney, where I was the publicist on TRON, among many other films.
I started a production company to produce media for the entertainment business. During this time, I wrote and directed films and television and traveled the world for my clients. I got into the internet and produced the web site for Toy Story and many other Disney films, which became the genesis for production company to produce web sites. This, in turn, got me gigs as the creative director and head creative exec for a series of ever-larger dotcom companies.
When the dotcom bubble burst, I made a film about my father’s life story entitled Finding Bill Murray (you can see it on YouTube as 187 separate clips) that we showed to my father the week before he died, projected on the side of our barn in Indiana for an audience of 200.
In making the film, I connected with a friend who was starting a streaming media company, and became a co-founder and head of creative for that company, which then became the springboard for the Live Earth concerts in 2007, for which I was the Chief Storyteller.
Meanwhile, I began studying improvisation, and realized the deep and pervasive connections between improvisation and our ability to maneuver and succeed in the Networked World. I wrote a book about it and started an education company to help clients achieve their business goals.
One of the realizations that came to me through the study of improvisation is precisely what you stated — that we all have an inner light guiding us that cannot be wrong. When we are young and flexible of mind and body and our spirits are unfettered, the light is strong. As we get older and more weighed down by expectations, responsibilities, the weight of the world, we can lose sight of it. But it’s still there. With focus and disciplined effort, we can keep it stoked and ourselves along with it.
There is no predictable trajectory, no rational map, to explain how I got where I am today. I have, in fact, improvised my career. I know where it matters, in my heart, that where I am today is the right place for me, and that all my life and work experiences, and whatever knowledge I have accumulated on my journey and the friends I have made along the way will come into play. All because many years ago, I began making choices with my heart instead of my head.
Knowledge will always be there for us, but what the heart senses can be fleeting, and we should act on it whenever we have the opportunity. The rewards for these choices cannot be known ahead of time, but they will be there and they will be substantial. Thank you for asking the question.
PETER’S RESPONSE:
Mike, your story is just amazing! Your success story validates age-old wisdom at the heart of aphorisms such as “follow your bliss” (by famed mythologist Joseph Campbell). Your multifaceted experience of a (breathtakingly!) prolific career is an uplifting and inspiring testimony to the creative powers we all have within, powers that are often stifled by external influences with our unwitting collaboration. You are the proof that as a person follows his bliss, bliss will soon follow him everywhere he goes. Thank you for leading by example!
Tags: Career, Disney, Emotion, film, Finding Bill Murray, Heart, internet, Live Earth, Networked World, Stories, Storytelling, television