I have learned a lot on this journey of building Careers with Wings that passion can look like a lot of different things to a lot of different people.   For example, some people will sacrifice everything to live their passion and I don't see that as necessarily a good thing since for me success comes from having balance in your life.   Of course, again, success and balance are different for different people.   One of things that I admire most in watching people follow their passion is when they aren't afraid to walk away from a long-entrenched career path or walk away from something that used to be their passion but is no longer working for them.   i heard such a great example of this from someone who recently joined us at our Vistage Group and I felt compelled to share his story because when he shared it - I kept thinking wow that took a lot of courage to walk away from what he thought was his dream, but then he realized that he was burned out on his old dream/passion and had a new dream which meant more time with his wife and a better quality of life.   I wanted to share this in case it gives you the courage to walk away from something that is no longer serving you and walk towards a new passion that makes you happy while being grateful for the experience you had living your passion.

Hi Marcy,
 
It was so nice meeting you yesterday, was definitely inspired by your passion for what you do. Wanted to forward along my information, and as promised here is a little background on my “life decision.”
 
My wife and I lived in Los Angeles for six years, and both worked in entertainment. I worked for an entertainment marketing agency negotiating product placement deals for brands in film and television, she worked for a fashion PR firm that represented fashion designers and dressed celebrities for red carpet events. Although we were both working in our dream jobs, we had a live to work mentality that consumed our personal lives and time with each other.
 
One night, sitting on the couch working on our laptops and sending out emails, we both came to the realization that we couldn’t do this forever and made a very difficult decision to completely start over so we could purchase a home and raise a family. Both of these prove to be difficult in LA for many reasons. San Diego was our first choice considering she grew up there and I went to San Diego State University. Just like that, we dropped everything and moved down to San Diego. I now sell insurance and she works in retail which we both enjoy although it isn’t our passion, but have no regrets because we had already lived that life. For the first time, we are working to live and actually have the time to enjoy each other as well as our surroundings.
 
Best,
 
Eric Schack
Account Executive, CLCS
License # 0G97189
 
HUB International Insurance Services Inc.
1331 Morena Blvd., Suite 300│San Diego, CA 92110
Direct Line: 619-275-7609
Cell: 310-854-9584
Fax: 619-275-6530
http://hubinternational.com/business-insurance