Third Time Lucky: How it Took Grit to Kickstart My Career

“Doing the best you can in everything you do will maximise your potential and provide you with opportunities.”

That’s what I often say to my daughter who is at the age of having recently chosen her options for GCSEs.

Whilst it may not seem like a big deal to some I know that, like my daughter, being presented with options at the age of 13 to decide what I potentially wanted to do in the future seemed premature to me.  My opinion hasn’t changed  

The process she has recently undertaken reminded me just how important being afforded opportunities can feel rather than being told that a certain path ‘might not be right’ for you.

I didn’t know I would be doing what I do now when I was a teenager.

I had other things in mind for myself…

I was always sporty from the moment I can remember.  I could always be found running, skipping, hopping and jumping around “with ants in [my] pants” according to my paternal great grandfather.

I challenged myself in everything I did: “Can I get dressed quicker than yesterday?” or “How can I further improve the result of what has been successful for me?”

Whilst I could have applied myself more academically (a general theme in many of my school reports), I found myself from a young age putting, as they say, ‘all my eggs in one basket’.

I ‘knew’ that I would do sport in some capacity, whether it was professionally or in a coaching or rehabilitator capacity.  I had it all planned out from pretty early on.

Until the fateful day.

Doing what I loved in PE and pushing myself to the max, I jumped up for a ball to catch and was tackled from behind.  As I lost my balance, I landed on one leg heavily which gave way and after a loud crunch the pain took over.

Needless to say, I had injured myself and unfortunately it transpired that I had severed my ACL ligament (it wasn’t a huge comfort to know, as many people thought it would, that many footballers had ended their careers the same way).

My career hadn’t even started, and I was having to have a rethink because the practical element of any sports degree that I considered would obstruct me from continuing the path I had envisaged for myself.  

It was put simply by my orthopaedic surgeon: I would not play competitive sport again (I guess in those days, there was less optimism for a comeback from this type of injury).

[Side note: I worked hard to rehabilitate myself and whilst I probably shouldn’t have, but I did, go on to play for England.]

I knew that a sports degree was physically out of the question at that point and so I opted for a Hospitality degree as a much less considered option.

I desperately wanted to study in Edinburgh; my A Level results were not as good as they could have been (I had always been training and focused on sport rather than revising) and I went through ‘UCAS Clearing’.

I was offered a place at Edinburgh Napier University to embark upon the 4-year degree (an extra one to complete an Honours degree in Scotland) and learnt more than I had expected I would.

The biggest thing I took from the eight years I ended up spending in Edinburgh (continuing to work there after I graduated with a 2:1 (Hons) in Hospitality, is that working in a physically demanding job cannot be underestimated.  I have never worked like I did then since.

The physical demands on my body within the hospitality industry took its toll and my ACL ligament couldn’t withstand the pressure.

Unfortunately, the first surgery (like many others who had an ACL replacement at a similar time to me) failed and the artificial elements used had embedded in my bones so had to be removed and redone.

I was, again, forced to face an unexpected decision…

The consultant orthopaedic surgeon advised me that I should reconsider my career because the physicality that hospitality required of me was not good for my joints.

Having had to reconsider my future career for a third time, I decided that I would, as I did in Hospitality, work my way up from the bottom to the top so that I could understand every aspect of the business that I was in and be in a position to fully understand the nuances of each part so that I could gain a senior role.

I enrolled myself in a Pitman Diploma course and found myself learning for the Executive PA Diploma whilst simultaneously working in the Spring Learning in Edinburgh.

I was approached by the Head of the Centre and asked if I would mentor my peers and that helped me to consolidate my knowledge whilst I was completing my course.

As I was nearing completion, I knew that finding a role (fresh out of a theoretical course) might be more challenging in Edinburgh and it was at that time that I relocated to London to finish the course and continue working in Spring Learning’s London centre.

I was once again headhunted but this time, and fortuitously for me, by an Independent Financial Adviser for High-Net-Worth Individuals.

Me, being me, was candid with my concerns in working with him as his Personal Assistant l because I did not hold any financial qualifications to assist with the advice given to his Clients as per the job description.

Having been reassured that he would give me the time to do further studies in order to study for the necessary qualifications he would like me to achieve, I started working with him shortly thereafter on what was a steep learning curve and huge opportunity in understanding the real world of office work.

In a little over 9 months, I found myself being made redundant because financial qualifications became a compulsory requirement by the Financial Adviser and I found myself in a temporary to permanent role within the property sector.

The Head of Department of a small property management firm quickly became someone I found myself enjoying working with and after a few weeks was pleased to accept the permanent position offered to me.

I think I might have been tempted to stay at that company for many years to come had I not met the person I would find myself marrying who worked at a sister company on the floor below and dealt with my boss regularly.  That was how we met.

I went on my way and made the conscious decision to gain experience in all areas of property (with property management experience under my belt I went on to work within project management, a global commercial agency, client side of property and finally private equity.)  

Having worked with a variety of senior members within the companies that I found myself employed, it allowed me to really understand the different ways of working, how personalities create certain dynamics and how operational systems and procedures need to be implemented to create effective businesses.

From the experience I gained over the next 17 years was the platform that would set me up to be able to confidently launch my own business.  

Using the expert skills that I had built upon, and the knowledge learnt through the leaders I had worked closely with as a member of the senior management team I was able to see first-hand how a business can operate effectively and perhaps some not as well.

Whilst I didn’t know that I would be a Business Owner myself all those years ago, I did know from an early age that I would “do the best I could to maximise my potential and create as many opportunities as possible for myself”.

Just like I often find saying to my daughter.

What she chooses to do is down to her.

All I want for her is to be happy in what she does because those people that genuinely enjoy what they do for a living often find that it doesn’t feel like work at all.

To have that for the years of work in store has surely got to be one of the best scenarios of all.

If you want to work with or be mentored by an Assistant who has the work ethic and resilience to make things work when things don’t go according to plan, get in touch. 

Anna

anna@akavirtualassistant.com