Hello and welcome, Reader!

There is a question we are taught to ask ourselves when thinking about our careers:

It is a useful question.

Especially early in our working lives.

We look at our strengths, build skills, collect experience, and improve at what we do. Over time, we may become very good at something indeed.

And then, sometimes, our focus shifts.

Not because we have lost our competence.

Because we have outgrown the question that once guided us.

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When being good at something is no longer enough

One of the first readers of my book described this beautifully.

After more than 20 years in fashion, product development, sourcing and production, she wrote:

“The question is no longer ‘What am I good at?’ — I know the answer to that very well.”

Her next question was much harder:

“What do I want to do with all of this experience in the next chapter of my life?”

At a certain point, the problem may no longer be a lack of skills, experience, or opportunities.

You may already have plenty of all three.

You may have spent years becoming someone your professional world values.

And yet the work that once felt like a natural expression of who you were can begin to feel slightly out of step with who you are now.

Nothing dramatic has to happen.

You don't have to hate your job.

You don't have to burn out.

You don't even have to decide that you want to leave.

Sometimes there is simply a growing sense that the person you have become and the professional identity you built are no longer fitting together quite as neatly as they once did.

That can be surprisingly difficult to acknowledge.

Because when your career is objectively successful, what exactly are you supposed to question?

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You don't have to throw away what you built

This is another part of a reader’s reflection that stayed with me.

They appreciated that the book doesn't romanticize career change or suggest that everyone needs to leave an established career and “find themselves.”

Sometimes the next chapter isn't about starting over.

It may be about seeing your accumulated experience differently.

About asking what still matters.

What no longer does.

What you want to carry forward.

And what you might finally be ready to leave behind.

This is one of the reasons I keep coming back to the idea that:

Smart people rarely need more advice. They need better questions.

Perhaps the useful question for you right now isn't:

What else could I do?

Maybe it's:

What do I want to do with everything I already know?

You don't have to know the answer.

Noticing that the question has changed is already a beginning.

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If this is a question you've been carrying quietly, Why Smart People Stay Too Long in the Wrong Career is my attempt to give you some company while you explore it.

​Read the book on Amazon​

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Until next time,

Elena