Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Outdoor Voices' founder is embarking on a blockchain venture, states are stocking up on abortion pills, and we hear from Joanne Lipman about her book on changing careers. Happy Thursday!
- Reinvention roadmap. During the COVID lockdown three years ago, I became fascinated by the idea of purpose and reinvention. I decided to explore the idea of the “new normal” so many of us sought out in our personal and professional lives in my new book Next! The Power of Reinvention in Life and Work.
I asked the hundreds of people I interviewed to walk me through their transitions and analyzed the trajectories of even more. What’s remarkable is, almost all went through the same set of four stages, what I call a Reinvention Roadmap: Search-Struggle-Stop-Solution.
Some switched careers, like Ina Garten, who was a nuclear budget analyst before becoming the Barefoot Contessa, and Jane Veron, who left the corporate world to raise her daughters, then reemerged as a nonprofit CEO and mayor of Scarsdale, N.Y. Others came back from trauma, like terror attack survivor Kay Wilson, or from failure, like Marla Ginsburg, who after being fired from her executive job reinvented herself as a Home Shopping Network star and designer of the MarlaWynne clothing line. Kathryn Finney went from an epidemiologist to the “Budget Fashionista” blogger to an investor in Black-owned startups. Trial lawyer Joanne Lee Molinaro is now a TikTok phenom known as the Korean Vegan.
Typically, each pivot begins with a search to gather information, often unintentionally, without knowing where it will lead. Then comes an uncomfortable, often miserable, middle period of struggle when you’re disconnecting from your previous identity but haven’t figured out the new one. That often doesn’t end until you reach a stop—whether you choose a break (like quitting a job) or one is forced on you (like getting laid off). Only then do you have the perspective to synthesize all of your previous experiences and ideas and to emerge with the solution.
Perhaps it’s human nature, but we tend to focus on just the first and last steps, ignoring the messy struggle in the middle. We’re held captive by the Cinderella myth, the idea that these transformations are abrupt and happen overnight. Yet the struggle isn’t just necessary; in virtually every arena of transformation, it’s the key to finding a solution.
Those I interviewed outlined about a dozen strategies to successfully navigate through the stages of the Reinvention Roadmap. They emphasized the importance of finding an “expert companion”—a coach or family member or friend—who can give an objective view of your talents and skills. They also advised reaching out to dormant and weak ties to network and to take a break; showering, sleeping, exercising, and cleaning can all lead to good ideas.
One of the most heartening revelations from my research, though, is that you’re almost certainly farther along than you realize toward your next act. Those I spoke with described what I call the “move before you move” approach: they took incremental steps, typically unintentionally, long before they realized it would lead to a pivot.
It’s an empowering realization and one that should help you take control of your own future. You’re more prepared than you know. Even if we’re not quite sure where we’re going, we are already on our way to getting there.
Joanne Lipman is the author of Next! The Power of Reinvention in Life and Work.
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