Why Stick to a Single Career throughout your Entire Life?

“I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

Michael Jordan

Many of us desire to give wings to our dreams of doing something creative and quench our thirst for creativity. But very few take the plunge and shift from the current job fearing less pay in a new venture and do what we love and then there some amongst us who throw caution to the winds and take that plunge.

One such person is Morgan Jensen. She is a practicing chiropractor for the past 20 years but she wanted to give wings to her dreams and become a product designer. But her profession was not letting her use her skills. But then one day, while treating her patients, she decided to design a backpack that is going to relieve people of their backache. It was her most challenging patients that gave her the idea to combine her practice with her passion and she came up with this ergonomic and more importantly a stylish backpack.

But the fulfillment of every dream comes with its share of hurdle. Morgan was 55Years when she came up with this idea. She was at a loss as how to promote this bag and raise money for its marketing? That's when she decided register to Kickstarter, a crowd funding site to display and test the demand for "the City Bag" (her backpack). The amazing feedback she got and the money she got from the crowd was enough to make her realize that it was time to shift careers.

Aimee Gilbreath was in a similar scenario as her passion and profession were poles apart. After completing her MBA, she started working as a consultant with Boston Consulting Group. Though the job was very satisfying, her heart was somewhere else. Having grown up with cats, dogs, horses, she always wanted to do something for animals. Hence she joined the local pet adoption center. But soon her hopes crashed as she realized people out there were more concerned with internal politics rather than adopting and caring for the animals. So she left.

However, a few months later, she chanced upon an advertisement on the newspaper looking for an Executive Director at the pet adoption center. Aimee wasted no time and called them up. Soon she realized that both shared the same vision and interests. After a bunch of successful interviews, she is now associated with the center. Though her current salary is less compared to her previous one, but she has no regrets. Under her skills, the adoption center has grown from a staff of 2 members to 40 employees and takes care of more than 90,000 pets.

Changing careers is a very big decision and more often than not, success rate is slow. But research shows that most people regret not because of what they have done, mainly because of what they did not do. Lost chances and not taking the risk is the major regret factor rather than trying and failing. So take that plunge and go for the career change which you have been longing for quite some time. After all if there is a will, there is a way!