Second Careers: Why It Might Be Time to Make a Change

I’ve worked in so many fields and had so many different careers throughout my life. I had my own business selling Mexican Black Velvet Oil Paintings around the country until I was 20 years old.  I worked for a roofing company and owned by own roofing business, too.  After that I started working in the car business at Wickstrom Chevrolet Cadillac located in Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania.  During this same time, I also started a career in the commercial truck business selling commercial trucks for Chevrolet Motor Division.  After that I worked for General Motors in the Central Foundry Division in Michigan as an iron pourer, core setter, and shaker operator.  That was just the first eight years of my adult life. 

Since then I’ve worked for dozens of other companies and had several different businesses.  I can say that one thing I’ve seen time and time again in each trade I worked in and in each business I owned is the constant, human condition of needing more to do.  I noticed that my employees wouldn’t actually get grumpy or low in morale until they were really bored and didn’t have enough to do.  It was when they were running around in an apparent frenzy that they were the happiest.  When I myself have worked for other companies, I was happiest when I had too much to do, not when I had not enough to do or when things were slow.

In the last few years I’ve played a little bit of a research game with this, and I’ve made a point to have conversations with my employees when I noticed that their morale was low.  These were just regular, office chit chats, but I noticed a common, reoccurring trend that came up in almost every single conversation of which I’ve probably had hundreds of now. 

Every employee of mine who seemed at all bored, unhappy, or even just grumpy had one thing in common and that was that they weren't pursuing a hobby or second career that they really wanted to be doing.  It wasn’t that they felt overworked or unhappy with their job or some other personal issue.  It was that they all had a serious hobby or hope for a second career or side business that they weren’t putting enough time and attention into.

This discovery was just great!  It proved to me what I always thought to be true.  Man truly does have incentive above all else to survive and to survive well.  Man wants to pursue his own goals, hopes, and dreams more so than anything else.  And if he’s not doing those things, he is to a degree unhappy and bored. 

This is the last thing I want to see in any one of my businesses and amongst any of my employees, and I strongly encourage all of my employees to pursue second careers if they so desire.  I think that it is a great idea, and I’ve certainly owned my own businesses in the past while also working a full time job for a company.

How I Can Help Get You Rolling On It

I’ve put together some tips that I pass on to my employees when they admit to me that they feel they could be doing more and doing better. I’d like to share them with you as well, and I hope you can benefit from them.

1. Find the time!  The number one objection I hear when I ask my employees why they aren’t actively pursuing this high and mighty activity or passion that they are so interested in the answer is always that they, “Just don’t have the time.”  This is such a common concern for people.  Time, time, time.  But no one controls time but you.  Time is a relative consideration.  It passes yes, but the relative speed with which it goes is determinable by only you. 

My advice is to figure out ways that you can do multiple things at once.  For example, if you want to pursue a hobby of writing a novel and eventually getting a book sold, offer to your boss to take on an additional responsibility that involves writing professional materials for the company.  This will not only enhance your writing skills, but it will also get you more into the mindset of writing in general, and you are more likely to dedicate a couple hours a day to writing your novel because of it.

2. Make your time off your time on.  When you want to pursue a hobby or get a second career going, sitting on the couch and watching TV with a takeout dinner is not the way to do it.  Prioritize your off time and set aside at least fifty percent of it to working on your true passion.  You will find yourself to be a lot happier on a day to day basis if you spend your free time working on your passion than if you spend it just sitting around.

3. Don’t make any more excuses.  The only person on this planet who is responsible for your destiny is you.  No more of the whole, “I could work on my second career if my boss didn’t give me such intense deadlines.”  No more, “If my kids didn’t take up so much of my time, I could play the guitar more.”  If you’re not happy with the status quo of how you spend your time, then change it.  Remember, “It's all too much,” is a banned phrase in your life now, and “can’t” is a four-letter word.

These are just a few of the ways I was able to expand on my own interests and desires while also working a full time job.  Today, several of my employees at different businesses of mine have started their own businesses as well, and the increased happiness, zeal, and dedication they bring to the table at my company as a result is noticeably higher!

Per Wickstrom is the founder and CEO of Best Drug Rehabilitation, one of the top holistic rehabilitation centers in the country. He found sobriety after a decades-long struggle with addiction and has since dedicated his life and career to helping others find the same life-affirming success he has. Learn more from Per by reading his blog or connect with him via Twitter or LinkedIn.