I’ve had multiple distinct professional chapters in my life (the “what do you do?” question).
Less spoken about, but very significant and formative to me was the eight year span I worked for a franchising video game retail chain. I started working for this company when I was only 12 years old, and spent 8 years there. For as much as I talk about my lack of paper education, this was an eight year apprenticeship in business, which served me powerfully for my next chapter and beyond.
My first reinvention came and for the next 10 years or so I was one of the biggest selling DJs and most famous rave promoters in the world. This is documented in my memoir, Requiem for My Rave.
When the economics of the rave scene made it unsustainable for me to continue that as a career, I reinvented myself as a comedy hypnotist. I toured the country and performed on television.
5 years later I tapped into a lifelong history of being a computer nerd and co-founded a tech business for automated webinars, Stealth Seminar. Reinvention again.
After reaching burnout, I exited my active role with that company, started working on my own healing and self-mastery, amplify the things I’ve learned through my blog, published a couple of books, and tried to impact the world and the people around me in positive ways by my being in it.
I bring this up now to make the case that I am an expert in reinvention. I have lived it. Over and over again.
I have broken down successful reinvention to 3 key elements:
First is Transferable Skills. I will go over this in more detail in a future article, but the main thing here is that you are always taking everything you’ve done in the past with you. For as wild as the things I reinvented myself as, I was always building on the things that I had before. I would never have had success as a DJ and rave promoter if I didn’t have a business foundation with me and successfully combine art with commerce. As a comedy hypnotist, as wild as that is as an idea, in the end I was promoting myself, booking shows, and performing. All things I developed as a DJ. There’s an underlying thread of tech, combined with my rule breaking, and combining art with commerce that served me as a software co-founder. You are the sum total of your entire existence on this planet.
The next element is what I call “Going Beyond the Pale“. At it’s most basic, I’ve boiled down this phrase to two meanings. A feeling of going into danger, and what is seen as unacceptable (either by society, the people around you, or your own critical voice). I’ll go more into detail around this for a future article. The easiest way to check in is: Does it scare you? When the fear shows up I often use it as a compass to give me clarity that this is the exact thing to do.
And the last key element is Fun. Does the thought of this new thing energize you? Do you get pleasure from it? Do you feel pride in yourself? All good questions.
When one of these elements are missing, such as when Fun is missing, it leaves you with doing the things you think you “should” be doing or are “supposed to” be doing. That is not fun.
You can go Beyond the Pale, and have Fun, but if you’re not taking your transferable skills, then you’re doing something like a thrill holiday or adventure. Not reinventing yourself.
And lastly, if you’re having fun, and tapping into transferable skills, but it doesn’t feel scary, you’re likely doing the same old thing.
Use this framework the next time you are at a life crossroads, to make the most of your next chapter.
