How I found my true passion – A personal story
It’s August 1st, 2018. I just finished my most difficult year as a professional in a sales leadership role. It’s my first day of a three week vacation with my family.
I’m so excited to spend time with my family going on a road trip across our home country, Germany. We been living abroad for more than 15 years. Our son can’t remember his early 1.5 years in Germany, while our daughter been born outside the country.
Why taking a break is so important to finding answers and taking action?
It’s one of the best summers in central Europe in a decade. Plenty of sunshine and warm temperatures, just perfect, especially compared to what we call home for the last 5 years. We had an amazing time as a family, visiting friends and family, exploring new places (we saw 12 cities less than two weeks) and getting time to think. Think about life in general, did I live the life I wanted, the one I ever dreamed of? It was a time of reflection for me.
At the time, I did not know why we decided to do this trip, a couple of month later I did. It was essential to a decision we had to make.
For years I had this strong feeling inside me, a calling to break free and become entrepreneur. Do my own business, be my own boss, be responsible for everything from strategy to execution and to do the business my way. I remembered what my mentor told me once “One day, you will have your own business and you will be successful, there is simply no other option.”. He knew that I was unhappy with my professional life. We worked for month trying to have my inner me giving away where my true passion lays, but nothing. It didn’t come out and I decided to leave it for a while and faded out the coaching with him. During one of my last sessions he said something which I didn’t understand at the time, but now “Think about your situation this way. The large corporation you are in is like a honeypot. You are sitting in the middle, it’s a nice and fussy feeling, warm and sweet, but slowly but surely you are sinking in, deeper and deeper, beside you decide now what you really want in life.”.
Fast forward a couple of years, in the meantime we moved after 10 years in Brussels to Dubai, been already 4 years in the Emirates, sitting at the river Spree in Berlin with my family watching the sunset, it just hit me. I had to get answers on the one most pressing question “What is my true passion?”. I remembered having bought a book back in 2016 from a German psychologist who developed the first carrier navigator in Germany. A quick Google search found her, I bought her book again, this time as eBook on my iPad. I read the book in one day, went to her website and guess what. She had in the meantime launched a 12-week online program on how to find your true passion. I signed up immediately for 297€.
How I learned how an external push can be an accelerator.
Right at the same time, my vacation was over and I had to get back to work. As you can imagine, been away for three weeks, there been thousands of emails waiting for me in my inbox. It didn’t took long and I’ve been fully back into the daily routine, with no time, at least I decided that there is no time, to continue with the online coaching program I just invested into. The weeks passed without me doing much to find my true passion. I did some modules online, but been quite slow. Lots of excuses been there, until that day that should turn my life upside down.
I received a phone call from my boss, asking me if I would have time to see him the following day as he would come to Dubai on short notice. Of course I had and I was excited to see him to get his feedback on my latest business ideas on how to overcome some of the challenges we had at the time.
The next day, it was early October 2018, my boss showed up in my office, next to him the HR Director. You can guess what happened next.
A couple of hours later I was out. Had handed in my computer, my team, my projects, my business, everything and was left to spend the remainder of the year on garden leave. To be honest, I felt relieved. Finally a decision.
The most difficult part was to get home and tell my family. When I arrived home my wife and two kids where already at the dining table. I sat down and told them straight what just had happened. Everyone was in shock. I explained that nothing is happening without a reason and that now is the day for me to finally do what I’m truly passioned about, but I would need at least two month to complete my online coaching program to know what it actually is. We agreed for me to look for a job in my current Industrie while in parallel complete my passion finder coaching program. I did it.
Why I believe nothing in life is happening without a reason?
It was shortly before Christmas that year, I had applied for about two dozen jobs, spoken to more than 100 people in my network, I got three interviews, but the process was horrible slow. I had to wait until January, which became February and finally March 2019 without a clear answer. By that time I’ve been down to one opportunity only. Finally the recruiter informed me that the headcount budget been postponed to later this year or maybe even 2020. This was the time where we decided to move back to Germany after 15 years living abroad. No-one of us wanted this move, but it just made the most sense given all.
So moving back home, what will I do for work?
In the meantime, I completed my online coaching program and found my true passion. Not only that, I also knew how to go about it. It was back in later summer 2017 when I got a suggestion on Facebook to join a webinar of an online business coach I had never heard about previously. When investigating about who this person is, I saw that she is the wife of someone I worked with at a previous company and I high regards off.
As it happened, remember, I truly believe that nothing in life is happening without a reason, she had a series of webinar leading towards her selling her online coaching program January 2019. I signed up for the free webinars and became a paying client shortly after.
This was my accelerator. I was full of energy, started to build my own online coaching program. I got an amazing buddy assigned without whom, I wouldn’t be where I am today. She is simply amazing. Thank you Abby…!!!
While first my plan was to start my online business coaching as a side business, now, after haven been made redundant twice in five years, I had the time and energy to go full in. And was I committed…!!!
At the beginning of March I reached out to family and friends to acquire test clients. Three of the four discovery calls I had converted into my first free clients in my brand new 6-weeks 1:1 coaching program.
Do what YOU want for LIVING.
Just had gone through the process myself, I knew exactly how my clients felt and how I can help them to succeed. I found my true passion and I know how to help other online entrepreneurs to find their and turn their passion into a business so they can “…do what they want for living…!!!”.
“Do what YOU want for LIVING.” became my mantra. I spend all my live coaching and mentoring others without knowing it. Now the time has come for me to give back all I learned over last nearly 20 years.
If you are also on a journey such like me, book a free 30 min discovery call with me.
Until next time,
Martin
