By Luis C Cano
(Photo by Simon Agnes Georgina - Székesfehérvár, 2019)
In the last months and with the disruptive reality of COVID, I started to look for new professional development opportunities. A fancy way to say: “I lost my job in the pandemic and started browsing the job market.” Since my university studies, I have always had the luck to have a stable job. Yet, on the side of my corporate career, I was always in search of volunteer and part-time opportunities to satisfy my “purpose.”
To this date I tell all my friends, do something that gives you money, something that gives you purpose, something that gives you peace of mind, and something that gives you good health! Not my words, I learned this on the road and I still repeat those same words to remind myself of it. I guess not many people are lucky enough to do something that gives both money and purpose.
I managed to do something that gave me money on my corporate job and something that gave me purpose as a volunteer in the public sphere. I did this by developing my entrepreneurial muscle. Volunteering, I decided to translate my knowledge into good causes.
The entrepreneurial spirit is not something I was born with. I learned to be an entrepreneur also from being on the road. Both my parents moved out of Colombia in the ’70s to settle in Venezuela. My father was an industrial engineer and he got promoted in his company. His new position required him to move with all his family to a new country. This was very convenient for him and my mother as both of them came from very political families and they both wanted to escape the ugly and corrupt discussions at their houses (That is another story for me to tell). Not long after stability was settled in their lives, my father got an accident that pushed him out of the workforce and left him on a bed for over a year.
In stressful circumstances, my mother used her knowledge in fashion design and started her own business designing baby linen. Upon recovery, my father took upon himself to build her brand and decided to invest full time in her venture. By the time I was born in the late ’80s, my mother’s name was a household known in the country. I do not recall growing up, being in a store dedicated to baby linen and not seeing her products on display. I do recall, helping my father with few errands after school to help the family business. Both of my sisters also did amazing things being entrepreneurs, they still do to this day. My father left this world without knowing how much I admired his entrepreneurial spirit. I often fail to tell my mother how much I admire her effort and accomplishments.
I hope my mother knows that my drive to be a social entrepreneur came from watching her try, fail, try harder, and then conquer!
(Portrait of my mother with few of her beautiful creations. Photo by me - Budapest, 2018)
My parents used to say:
"A crisis is the best time to start something new."
They applied this to their business. In times of crisis, they started new products, reinvented the brand, and expanded to new markets.
The COVID pandemic has been a time for many of us to reflect on what we want to build after the pandemic, professionally and personally. I got to understand that I need to reinvent myself. When I looked at my CV I realized, I am a generalist. I have a good base, I have plenty of knowledge in corporate policy, talent development, public affairs, political communication, employee engagement, and other fields. Yet, I was not satisfied with my profile, it lacked direction. This translated also into many job rejections I got. I got to know now that many of my friends were in the same position as I am. All of them with very strong skills and knowledge, all of them craving for stability in times of crisis, all of them facing the generalist curse.
I decided then to fight back the many rejections and look back at my experiences and knowledge. I started my political training and consulting venture in an attempt to do something that gives me money but also something that gives me purpose. My purpose has always been to enhance the professional journey of our public officers, our community organizers, our heroes in the civil and political sector. My project led me to also to learn more. I enrolled in a Harvard Kennedy School Executive Education programme to reflect on my projects with the European political community. An entrepreneur never stops learning. Moreover, I started to realize that around me, many of my friends also started to be entrepreneurs, in all matters of professional life. Their efforts are an inspiration to me.
(Portrait of my good friend Gergő Rácz. Personal Trainer, with gyms closed in Hungary he started his own business doing training classes online and fitness coaching on Zoom. Photo by me - Budapest, 2020)
Many questions ahead
Will my entrepreneurial adventure bring enough money to the table? Will I be recruited for something stable and be forced to decide which road to take next? How will I get clients?
Uncertainty is the only thing that I know is ahead. But on the road, I also learned from my many mentors that uncertainty is to be embraced. Uncertainty pushes us to be creative and also to remember that we should not sit and wait for things to happen. Many times we will fall into that trap to sit and wait. If so, we are to find someone who might know how we are feeling, after a good coffee we will be ready to push again. One thing for sure is not uncertain, I tried, hopefully, I will do well in the crisis as my parents predicted. But even if not, I know from them that if it does not work out, I will try harder and I will try differently, it will pay off personally and professionally.
It is hard to encourage people to become an entrepreneur when money is such a big factor in our lives. But I hope that if you are reading, if you also hesitated to start something you always wanted to start, do it! Now is the time, I can guarantee, the peace of mind that comes after taking the first step is the best feeling ever. Moreover, do it for yourself, but also do it because this is a beautiful opportunity to do it for others, do it to fulfil your purpose!
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