Career dreams that have been cultivated for a long time always emerge for my clients when they have lost their job and are forced to think about their professional future. In most cases, this is the worst possible time to do so. You should deal with your dreams when everything is running smoothly, as the following example shows.
Some time ago, I advised a client who had lost his job as a real estate specialist. He wanted to use his joblessness to realize a dream he had had for a long time: to open a take-away and market it as a franchise. In his previous career, he had always worked in the commercial sector and had been in the real estate industry for many years.
Together, we looked at the steps he would have to take to realize this dream, how long it would take and how much money he would need to bridge the gap between his job and the realization and then for the initial implementation period.
You have to be able to afford your dreams
As he only had financial reserves for a few months, the issue was quickly resolved. He realized that he would have to abandon the dream for the time being and look for a new job in his usual field, which frustrated him. When I asked him when he had last thought about take-away, he replied: two years ago. A glance at his CV revealed that he was also looking for a job at the time. In the past two years, he hadn’t done anything on the subject. I predicted that if he didn’t change his approach to career design, his dream would resurface at the earliest when he was next unemployed.
Urgency and importance
This is a typical situation with the difficulty of dealing with urgency and importance. The “take-away” project is an important matter; after all, it may be about realizing a lifelong dream. But securing his income by finding a new job is urgent. As a B task in the Eisenhower matrix, he can only realize the take-away if he plans the steps precisely.
This needs energy and time. Once he has a job again, he can devote his free time to the project. It is advisable to do some job research. Even better, he could spend some time working in the catering industry on the side to get to know the industry in practice. As a former restaurant worker, I have observed that many people have romanticized ideas about this industry, in which people work hard and often earn very little.
If, after in-depth analysis, my client still wants to realize his dream, one of the things he needs to do is draw up a business plan and carry out a thorough market analysis.
However, on closer inspection, many dreams vanish into thin air. That’s not a bad thing, because it cre-ates space for new ideas.