Master of Disaster
Most successful people have endured hardship and led unpredictable lives that led them to a great idea.
In December 2018, I was laid off.
At the time it felt like the sky was falling. I felt raw and rough in the prime of my life. After weeks of sulking, I made a bold decision that left people scratching their heads.
I decided I would not return to the tech industry for a whole year. Instead, I would take all of 2019 to put myself in completely new environments - even if it backfired.
In a really twisted way, I wanted to make my life more complicated than it already was. Maybe the solution to one problem is sometimes the creation of another. After all, to be happy we need something to overcome.
“Everything worthwhile in life is won through surmounting the associated negative experience.” - Mark Manson
Borrow Ideas from Different Disciplines
That year I worked at a physiotherapy clinic. I took pottery classes and became a pottery teacher (which was the most fun I’d had in a while!).
Eventually, my love for conservation and wildlife led me to working for the Grizzly Bear Foundation. By the end of 2019, the most random job appeared - working at Netcoins (a cryptocurrency exchange company). Ironically, this would be the the most rewarding job and the one I’d finally settle in.
As you can see, in the span of a year I’d gone from being a product manager at a digital product agency to well… basically all over the place. It was liberating.
To my friends though, I seemed to be lost. Why would I sabotage years working in the tech industry for all these menial jobs? Wasn’t I falling behind? How was I OK living on a major pay-cut? They had a ton of questions, to which I could only reply: “I just need to do this.”
Deep down I knew exactly what I was doing. I wasn’t allowing the pressures of having a “successful career” choke me.
Creative people generate ideas by allowing their brains to make connections between two totally different worlds. I was trying different things and borrowing ideas from different disciplines. I wanted to braid together themes, issues and solutions.
In following this mantra, I learned a ton about life which I would’ve never learned otherwise. I met remarkable people too.
I met a woman who survived being hit inside her car by a passing train.
I met a man who swerved off the side of the road in the winter and lost his ability to walk, but after years of therapy learned to talk and walk again.
I met a nurse who found pottery to help her anxiety from the demands of the emergency room.
I met a First Nations man who advised on how we could practice respectful eco-tourism of both the land and grizzly bears.
My world was stretched. Far beyond sitting at my next job in tech. All because I made crisis work to my advantage.
Editing Your Story
What I learned that year is that we’re great at narrating the stories of our lives. But we forget that we can be powerful editors too. Perhaps, editing is the most important of these. Editing provides the opportunity to examine the accuracies of the stories we tell ourselves.
2018 for me was the year of crisis. I took that opportunity to write and edit who “I work in tech-Ayelen” was.
I was was no longer a young woman who simply worked in tech. I was now an adaptive, resilient woman who decided what her fate was. She did not believe herself to be a failure, instead she believed the crisis was leading her next best move. She was a master of disaster.
“Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” — George Bernard Shaw
Image: Visualize Value
Here’s what I’ll leave you with: Add a little mess to your life. Make it just a little bit more chaotic. Lean in to the gifts of imperfections. Get in the habit of unknowing and creating yourself. Give yourself permission to write and edit your story, as many times as needed.
When you’re triggered by a challenge, ask yourself: what is the lens through which I have chosen to see the world? How do I turn disaster into something meaningful for myself?