HOW TO BEAD A ROGUE ELEPHANT The Musings Of A Jewelry Designer: Transitions

Money. Power. Prestige. Position. Reputation. Legitimacy. I had all these when I was in health care. And as much as I hated to work in the health care field, I could not give these up. But I had to transition out of health care. I hated it.

My first attempt, though I’ll tell you right up front, was not successful. I was a health policy planner for the state of Tennessee, 25th highest paid state government official at the time.

Before coming to Tennessee, I had been an assistant professor at Ole Miss. I was in charge of the graduate program in health administration. As part of that role, I wrote a career guide for my students. It was very thorough and comprehensive. I submitted it to Prentice Hall Publishers. Out of that, HOW HIGH CAN YOU FLY hit the store shelves in bookstores across the country.

Now in Nashville, I was wondering if I could somehow leverage the book to get out of health care. I tried various speakers’ bureaus, but my one book to my name experience was insufficient for them to book me. So, in short, I set up a career counseling office in a suite of offices in the better part of town and advertised for clients. Concurrently, I wrote a monthly column for the Nashville Business Journal called CareerWorks in the hopes of attracting clients. I saw…