Scanning the horizons and adding together current interests with possible ideas about future directions career- and business-wise, my main thoughts the last year or so have been:
- 1. There’s no sense in tearing everything up and starting over on a completely new career-path. Lack of time/resources makes this option unrealistic. The pragmatist in me recognises: far better to start where you are and pivot to a new direction.
2. My strongest aptitude academically/intellectually was always maths. This hasn’t changed. I studied both maths and advanced maths at A-level. Stupid me followed convention (knew I shouldn’t have done that) and added physics to that list. Physics was never my strongest suit. Should have played computing instead, would have made far more sense. My mind has that ferocious logic thing going on. Computers understand me, humans don’t. That should have made the ‘maths + computing’ combo a no-brainer. It’s my only regret in life: that I didn’t work this one out sooner. (In my defence, I was constrained by the world’s worst careers advisor, but that’s a subject for another day.)
3. Earning power has to be a consideration in all this. Forget fancy ideas about ‘do what you love’, ‘follow your passions’, ‘put contribution first and the money will follow’. Here’s the secret, people: you get paid for adding value, for solving problems, for meeting others’ needs/wants. Really doesn’t matter what area or niche that’s in. Although the standard internet marketers’ meme (there are only three hot niches: finance, money, health) still applies. I have plenty of experience in business/finance and know where the pain points are, especially for cash-strapped (and often technophobic) small businesses.
