Do You Work Like a Celebrity?

A few interesting things have come out of starting this blog and this business.  I’ve worked with and met people that I never would have before and people have started to come to me for advice.  Which I find fascinating, not because I can’t be helpful – I think I really can be helpful in certain situations – but because I never intended to become a “thought leader.”  I just wanted to find a new career that fit.  And this one does.

And the good news is, when you find something that works, others want you to help them.  So for all of you who have helped me “find” myself, I am excited to be paying it forward.

Most recently, a young woman looking to change her career approached me.   She is struggling because the job she likes to do isn’t a traditional job (it lasts from Oct. to May) and she feels you are expected to also work from May to Oct as well.  She told me that even though the job isn’t year round the pay is adequate to keep her afloat in these uncertain times, she likes the work, and she gets to work with interesting people on interesting projects…but shouldn’t she being doing something more.  We had a great discussion and I gave her some suggestions for how she could turn her passion of helping non-profits with the PR for their gala events into a job during the summer months.  I told her this non-profit freelancing might even turn into a bigger job than the one she is currently working.  But mostly I told her to relax.  She’s young, a career isn’t a straight line on a resume, and that she wasn’t the only one that struggles with this problem.

Which brings me to celebrities.  They work a very untraditional schedule, they often have only a few really great projects in their work lives but they are considered to be a success.

So why can’t we all work like them and be considered successful?  Isn’t Julia Louis Dreyfus very successful?  She was on Saturday Night Live (1982-1985), Seinfeld (1990-1998) and now The New Adventures of Old Christine – a hilarious show that started in 2006.   But she also was out of the limelight between each project.  She still worked during that time but it wasn’t consistent and her resume is not a straight line.  Also, no one would tell her she was wasting her time when she worked on Seinfeld just because it didn’t tape 52 weeks a year.

I think we need to give ourselves a break if we work outside of the box and stop worrying so much about what others think of our world.  If it works for you and you like it and you can pay your bills – go with it.   A very smart person I just met thanks to this new adventure told me, “Work is something you do, not somewhere you go.” And if you like what you’re doing…keep doing it until it doesn’t work for you anymore and then do something else…just like a celebrity.