Create Your Own Opportunities

Stop right there! Do you think it is too late for you to change your circumstances? Read thig blog.

Are you currently sitting there wondering when things will change? Are you hoping that someone comes out of the blue to save you from your mental prison? If you are, then you were exactly like me at one point in time. Sitting there, hoping something will happen and maybe even putting in a touch of effort to change your circumstances.

Unfortunately, for a long period of time, nothing was happening for me. For years I felt a gap inside me that I just didn’t know how to fill. I worked in jobs that others kept telling me were good which I eventually realized, although they are decent jobs, they did not speak to me as a person.

For 7 years I kept telling myself that this is how it is supposed to be and that this is how adult life is. I accepted my reality. One day, I was daydreaming in my office and looked outside the window. When I looked outside the window, I saw many expressions on the people’s faces walking by. The people looked miserable, sad and unfulfilled. My environment was filled with people who were uninspired and very accepting of their reality. Accepting that this is just how life is. I was suffocating and frustrated mentally. Everywhere I looked, everywhere I went, it was a constant reminder of an unfulfilled life. This is when I took a stand.

I made a promise to myself that this would not become my reality. I would not succumb to what society was trying to tell me was normal. My environment at that time was telling me it’s too late to start again. Even my mind was feeding me doubts that it was too late to start again. I had 7 years of Finance experience, I had almost finished my degree in Financial Planning and it was hard for me to give that up with all the commitments I had in my life.

Me giving that up would mean that I would have to start in an entry level job, with a entry level salary and with financial commitments that simply couldn’t support my life. I was tied into many commitments, a mortgage, a wedding to pay for and a beautiful fiancée to support financially. How was I going to manage all of this while trying to create the life I wanted?

At this point, I had figured out what it was that made me happy. Working 7 years in jobs that you don’t enjoy eventually leads to you learning a lot about yourself. You can figure out what you like and what you don’t like. Luckily for me, I was able to figure out that I am a very creative person. I like to write, I like to create and I like to add value to people’s lives. That is why I started my brand The Philosophers Army. Although just a passion project, it was the one thing that brought me satisfaction and enjoyment. It was an outlet that allowed me to express myself.

Through the creation of this brand and managing it on my own, I started to discover that I enjoyed Digital Marketing. Everything I was doing for the brand is what is considered as Digital Marketing. Content Creation, Blog Writing, Organic Growth, Paid Growth and so on.

This is when I said to myself “While I continue to work on this brand, I will start looking for a job in Digital Marketing”. I done some research and realized that what I was doing for my brand, the skills obtained would cross over very well into a Digital Marketing role.

From that day, I started to apply for numerous Digital Marketing jobs. I did this for 6 months and I received hundreds of rejections on my applications, but I did not care. I did not care because nothing was going to deter me in my mission to obtain a role In this type of industry. Failure was worth it because I knew the more I tried, the more I refined my approach, the higher my chances would become. Each time I thought of possibly just giving up, I thought about what my life would look like in the future if I stayed in my current position. When I did that, it gave me the drive to try again because I knew this current life was not the one I wanted for myself.

6 months went by. 6 months of changing my approach in my applications, 6 months of getting rejected, 6 months of waiting and slowly becoming more aggressive in my approach until one day, I received a call.

This call was from a company who had received my application for a Digital Marketing Coordinator role. They were impressed with my CV and asked me to come in for an interview. I was overcome with joy but realizing there was still much to be done. I went in for the interview, then a 2nd round interview, then a 3rd round interview! I thought to myself “Why all of these interviews for the one job?” It seemed a little excessive and I was informed that there were numerous candidates. Once the 3rd round interview was done, I did not hear back for a week from them. I thought to myself that I probably didn’t make the final cut. I was actually very mentally distraught because I had come soo close only to fail and start again…a process I was becoming very familiar with.

A week went by and then I received a call. The call was from the company. They told me that they were very impressed with my application and that they truly believed my finance experience mixed with my marketing experience were a perfect combo for this job. My body started to fill itself up with joy and anxiety because at the very end of the call, I GOT OFFERED THE JOB!

I got offered the job with a salary that I could manage my life with! All those years of unfulfillment, mental challenges and perseverance were finally coming to an end! I got the job and when I started my first day there, It felt soo right. I knew that this is what I was meant to be doing. I was soo sure that this is what I wanted to do that not only did I start working full time as a Digital Marketing Coordinator but with a friend of mine, I even started a Digital Marketing business on the side! Everything was finally starting to fall into place. I had the purest form of clarity about the path I was on which is something I never truly had before. Satisfaction from a work environment and in life had finally started to come to fruition for me.

Now what is the point of this story? Why am I telling you all of this? Let me tell you why. I know many people that think it is too hard to do something or that it is simply not achievable. I was one of those people because I too thought it was difficult and I also had people telling me I was crazy for doing what I wanted to do.

I’m here to tell you that if there is something you truly want, I promise you that you can achieve it. When no one was giving me an opportunity, I created my own opportunity. I was told I couldn’t get into the Digital Marketing space because I had no experience. So what did I do? While I worked full time in Financial Planning, I started a passion project to build my experience in the Digital Marketing space. This creation of mine (The Philosophers Army) in which I gained nothing from financially, led to me getting the job I wanted. I had to make something happen out of nothing because I was sick and tired of society telling me it was too late to change. Sick and tired of my current situation and even fed up with making excuses for my situation.

I put the blinders on, focused on none of the words I was being told and started to make things happen for myself. I now still focus on my brand (The Philosophers Army), my business (DotMD) and my full-time job as a Digital Marketing Coordinator. This may seem like a lot of things to juggle but it truly does not seem that way. It does not seem that way because everything I am doing is allowing me to express myself and brings me happiness.

My friends please NEVER think it is too late or too hard to do something. If you truly want something but there is no opportunity presenting itself, make the opportunity happen. Break down the walls that are imprisoning you mentally and start making things happen for yourself. If it was not beyond me, it is not beyond you.