What happens when the career you originally pursued is no longer working for you? In this episode of Career Relaunch, Youssef Salameh, shares his story of relaunching his career from running a family restaurant in NYC to becoming a realtor in Las Vegas. We’ll talk about the emotions of walking away from your career, the barriers that stop you from moving on, and the realities of leaping into a new industry.

I decided to have Youssef on the show because his story is one that you might be relate to. Sometimes, we invest a lot into one path in our career, and even when we know we’re not completely happy, we keep hanging on. But as Youssef is going to describe, sometimes, when the writing’s on the wall, you just have to change course.

During the Mental Fuel® segment, I also address a listener question about whether your next career move should be one that’s practical or aspirational.

Key Career Insights

1. Walking away from something you’ve built from scratch will inevitably involve a range of emotions including sadness, disappointment, anger, and fear.
2. Even if you can see the writing on the wall about your need and desire to change careers, people tend to hold onto the careers they have to maintain the stability it offers them.
3. Taking a mental break can actually be very productive and clarifying.
4. Pride can often stand in the way of letting go of a career that is no longer working for you.

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Listener Challenge

During this episode’s Mental Fuel segment, I talked about the importance of getting very clear with yourself on what specific metrics you’ll use and hurdles you’ll need to cross that will trigger you to pursue something else in your career and define where you’ll draw that line.

Will it be a certain number of days each week you truly enjoy your job vs. dread your job? Or accumulating a certain amount of savings so you can feel comfortable weathering a temporary hit to your income?

Or will it be something more personal? For example, the number of days each week you can actually tuck your kids in at night? Or the amount of time you feel energized vs. depleted?

Decide what’s important for you to have, and if you cross that line from your situation being acceptable to unacceptable, make your bold move, knowing that your transition may be an emotional one as Youssef described earlier, but certainly one worth making.

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About Youssef Salameh, realtor