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Originally Posted by JohnnyB
I am struggling with this a lot right now.
I manage a private middle school program. My work is meaningful, I get lots of respect from those I work with and the community of parents, I have loads of control over my work life, the compensation is good and I have about four months of paid vacation in a year, but I don't feel satisfied at all right now. I first became a head of a school when I was just 26 and this will be my seventh year in leadership. My current program is something that I have led the build up of from scratch into what is now a stable and thriving program with very positive feedback from students, parents and staff - and I feel totally demotivated because I don't see a lot of personal growth for me from here going forward.
I feel like when I take a step back and look at what my career provides me with it's hard not to see it as really enviable, but I don't feel the passion. I chose education as a career field because I wanted to be in a field where I'm helping people and where I was working for something much more important than money. I feel that all the time in my work, but I also feel like I'm ready for a new life challenge. At the same time, I worry that I'm not going to find anything much better than where I'm at.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnnyB
That is exactly what I feel. I love the building process, but when it comes to just the maintenance and refinement stage, I can feel my passion slipping away and I fear no longer giving my best to what has been built.
Over the last few years I've also worked on entrepreneurial projects in trade/investment between Canada and China as well as a new private school project and found I really like the challenge and the breadth of what needs dealt with in them. I'm planning to come back to Canada next year to do my MBA as a bridge back to Canada after ten years abroad and also as a way of getting my head out of private education for a while to look at other directions I may go.
It's a big change and a bit scary.
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Going back and reading these posts from five years back is kind of cool. When I look back on the program I had built back then, I see it as probably the most meaningful work of my career, but also very small in looking back on it.
I went off to do my MBA after writing this, and had a hell of a good time doing so. Made great friends, learned a lot, worked on a BCI edtech startup, then went back to Shanghai to direct development of education for a large education group where I worked on a lot of future of education sort of stuff. I connected with some great communities bringing me into more innovation spaces bridging Asia and Silicon Valley, have gotten to speak on panels and share stages with some amazing people, and built friendships with a lot of special people across a broad range of industries. Now I'm temporarily cut off from my career while I'm stuck in Vancouver during covid, but I'm also starting a new business, setting up a new non-profit, and doing my doctorate studying directly under a global leader in the future of education sphere who is part of leading a massive initiative with one of the big international organizations that I find inspirational.
I've worked hard, taken some big risks, had a lot of fun, and definitely moved forward in my field quite a bit in the last five years. Being unable to get back to Asia during covid has been a big, big hit, but I'm hopeful that I'll still pull through with enough going on to leverage in the next big steps I have planned, which I don't think I even could have conceived of myself doing five years ago.
Who knows how it will all turn out, and it hurts right now, but I feel glad in looking back that I'm at least shooting my shot. It also cheers my up to put the challenges I'm facing now in a bit more perspective thinking of the broader arc I'm hopefully still on.