Creativity emerges in Career Chaos Economy

Catherine’s Creative Job Transition

Catherine Wright is the membership director for the National Association of Mothers’ Centers. She, along with the rest of the planet is in great transition. It’s a similar challenge working for non-profits in our chaotic economy. It requires a certain amount of faith and commitment,  especially as non-profits are fledgling under slashed philanthropic generosity. That result, courtesy the recession and Bernie Madoff – not necessarily in the order.

“We rely a lot on individual and private foundation monies,” said Wright in a phone conversation this morning. “No ones investment has been safe, so everyone is re-evaluating how much they can give and where they will give, so we have to find alternatives to cash flow and cutting costs.”

The challenges that NAMC is battling mirror Wright’s personal experience. She went on to tell me that her job wasn’t safe either. She had to re-evaluate how she was spending her time and figure out a way to bring revenue into the organization to keep her job.  But in all the chaos, she says had an edge.

“Because I was so passionate about the mission of the organization, I became even more committed to make it work,” said Wright who realized that it was time to look for new opportunities for NAMC where she had never looked before, which included examining completely new partnerships in uncharted waters.

“I was seeing that the doors were closing, but I was not buying it. Instead I made a new commitment to the organization and somehow that faith started opening new doors,” said Wright who by chance had a sudden opportunity to take a workshop on building business partnerships. She said it lead to something right away, a new perspective on the way she would approach prospective strategic partnerships. Armed with new knowledge, “We came into new negotiations at a higher level than where we started in the past, at a faster pace,” said Wright. 

Catherine Wright took a leap of faith financially to take the course on her own and  jumped on a plane to California from New York. From the chaos of the economy, emerged insight and a new vision not only of how to bring in more business to the non-profit, but how she would manage her career and hang onto that paycheck – at least for now. 

The Career Chaos Economy

In this sudden Career Chaos Economy, being laid off or in fear of it occurring,  seems to be sparking creative and innovative approaches to reinventing ones career and/or heading into entrepreneurship. 

Last week a New York Times’ article, Weary of looking for work, some create their own, explained the venture into sudden career transition and personal job creation. Here’s a telling excerpt:

“Economists say that when the economy takes a dive, it is common for people to turn to their inner entrepreneur to try to make their own work. But they say that it takes months for that mentality to sink in, and that this is about the time in the economic cycle when it really starts to happen — when the formerly employed realize that traditional job searches are not working, and that they are running out of time and money.

Mark V. Cannice, executive director of the entrepreneurship program at the University of San Francisco, calls the phenomenon “forced entrepreneurship.”

Call it what you will, it’s upon us. This time is calling upon people to dive a little deeper into what makes them tick, and to take a surgical knife to the inner workings of personal passion and joy. Some are digging out the real passionate enterprising gusto that may exist below the surface fear of the current stagnation. For others, it’s getting back to the basics of whatever brings joy from past experiences or our own personal narrative.

Still, this self-contemplative mode promises no guarantees except the building of personal courage to weather the storm. It’s that accumulated inner gutsy strength that can either build mountains, or lead to yet another lesson in life. Either way, if you’re unemployed can you really lose by doing an inventory of what drives you and makes you happy?

Here are two recent posts that might provide some inspiration along these lines:

5 Tips to Organically Discover your Passion, While Rewiring your Career

Successfully Aligning your Passion with your Personal Brand