The Fine Art of Invention (or Re-invention)

This weekend was a special one for me. Like many other parents, I had the privilege of seeing my daughter graduate from college. Beyond feeling incredibly proud, being at a graduation ceremony was an inspiring experience for me. Since my daughter is a pretty private person, I’m going to respect that and leave out details on her. Suffice to say, I couldn't be prouder of what she's accomplished and I know she's got exciting things ahead.

I can share that she graduated with some people that had some pretty unique majors in fields that didn't exactly scream “here's a job for you."  Clearly, they read the books that said follow your passion and don't worry about the money.  But I truly, truly admire these students particularly as someone who has followed a rather nontraditional path in my own career. (At one point, I truly believed I would be playing guitar or bass as my professional career).

As an interesting bookend to the weekend, on Saturday, I received an email from a local nonprofit asking me to participate in Career Day. They wanted me to speak to some fourth graders about my career and share an inspiring message. That's challenging! Think about it: How often do we say to each other that we need to make our mission messaging so concise that a fourth grader could understand it? Now I'm being asked to talk about my life story - or at least my professional one.

Well, none of you are probably fourth graders but for the fun of it, I thought I'd share my message. Since I'm doing this tomorrow, if you have any feedback, I'd love it!
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1. Find the meaning in what you do and know that what's true for you is true for you.
2. Choose what you do because you love it - not for the money.
3. Try new things: It's never too late to do what you want to do and be who you want to be 
4. Learn enough about yourself that you can share your best contributions with the world 
5. Don't settle. If you've been true to yourself about 1-4, it's nearly impossible to leave those behind.