Taking your career one step at a time

You work hard. You get some good marks. You get the job you’ve always wanted, and then you live happily ever after. Or maybe not.

Despite our best intentions, that simple story arc is one that we’ve all fallen prey to believing in at one time or another. The Bio-Med leadership conference, which brought in over two hundred students, aimed to spur its attendees into challenging these assumptions and thinking deeply about their career paths. Kicking off the day was the prolific motivational speaker, author, and television personality, Denise Marek.

Denise Marek began her foray into the work world as a financial planner, but shortly realized that the field was not for her.

“I just hated it,” exclaimed Marek during the opening portion of her talk.

Realizing her career might not lie in the field in which she studied for four years, Marek was faced with a tough problem, a problem that many students in their final years are facing today.

Conference organizers, Marnie Jakabs, Josh Ostapchuk and Kelsi Cole hoped to place the worries of students into perspective by giving professionals like Marek a chance to describe the meandering and undirected paths they took to finally find a meaningful career.

“[All of the speakers] searched and they struggled and did some lateral movement and then made it back to a successful point,” said Jakabs. “So many [students] come into first year with just one goal and don’t consider options other than med-school or grad school. At some point, you realize that you shouldn’t be here to get a piece of paper. That diploma, ultimately, isn’t going to be what you remember.”

“I’ve really, after getting to fourth year, been trying to stop always looking ahead and asking all those, ‘What if’ questions that cause so much worry. Instead, I’ve been trying to appreciate the journey,” added Ostapchuk.

It was a strong appreciation of the journey that eventually led Denise Marek from her lackluster plans of working in finance to hosting her own TV show and publishing two books.

“I have always loved public speaking and at one point [after quitting my job in finance] I went up to a TV producer that I had done some work with. I just asked if I could get on the show and do these little three-four minute motivational talks that would have a message and hopefully get people thinking. Come to think of it, it was a huge risk for [the producer],” said Marek. “That became a regular thing and one day [the regular host] was on leave and I was asked if I would take over. It really just took off.”

We might look at Marek’s story and assume it was simple good luck and fortune that propelled her into success despite her initial faltering as a financial consultant. The reality, however, is that the journey was as hard for her as it would have been for any other person. What gave Marek the drive to keep trying was her ability to always maintain perspective, both in the face of failure and success.

“I heard a study once that said astronauts, when they come back from space, often have depression, because they’ve achieved the big thing,” said Marek. “When I was [in my early thirties] I felt like I’d achieved the big thing and then I thought, ‘Well now what?’ We all sometimes believe in the magic formula […] that we will achieve our biggest goals, and then we’ll be happy. But that’s not how it works. [I realized] that there is no be-all -end-all solution. Life is a journey.”

If we can learn anything from Marek it’s that we should follow her advice to strive for a “life of Meaning instead of a life of Me.” While we all have goals that we work towards tirelessly, it is important to realize that our priorities and situations can change at any moment. The philosopher Søren Kierkegaard once said, “We live life forwards, but we understand it backwards.” This is an idea that most people will struggle the better portion of their lives to come to terms with. The Bio-Med leadership conference by allowing professionals to lay their stories on the table, and give one group of students a little head start.

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