From my 2002 photo album
Fifteen years ago someone took a chance on me, a recent graduate living in Japan in my early twenties. I found myself as Employee Number Five in a tiny start up company that would grow to hundreds of staff in the space of three years. We were the FIFA World Cup Accommodation Bureau for the 2002 FIFA World Cup, and a case of being ‘in the right place at the right time’ saw me in charge of all the accommodation for all the professional teams playing in one of the biggest sporting events on earth. And if that weren’t enough, a few months later I was also given responsibility for all the ticketing in one of the World Cup venues. Looking back it was complete madness.
Yesterday saw Germany win the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Twelve years before, at the 2002 World Cup Final, I had been sat in the stadium cheering for Brazil (as England were long gone). This time I was sat at home with my baby asleep on the rug in front of me, a world away from the craziness of the 2002 tournament 12 years before. And it made me think of this…
You are not a sum of the job titles you have had, or the companies you have worked for. Having experiences is so important, but having exactly the right experience is not always necessary. When I found myself, at the age of 25, with a staff of 20, three mobile phones and ticketing responsibility for a stadium of 50,000 seats, it wasn’t because I had done that job before. It was because I was cheeky, keen, willing to learn, and up for anything. It was because I took a deep breath and asked a friend of a friend to introduce me to the guy who eventually gave me my job. It was because I knew I wanted to be part of something amazing, and I went after it.
So many things have come out of that experience. In fact, without it I would have had a completely different career path, not to mention never having met the mother of my god-daughter (who was the friend-of-a-friend who got me the job and then offered me her spare room until I found somewhere to live).
Sometimes jobs can be exciting. Sometimes they are dull. Sometimes they stretch us. Sometimes they are mind-numbingly simple. But there is something to be taken from each and every one of them, whether that is learning some new skill, meeting someone who will be important in your life, or even discovering what you DON’T want to feel like at work.
However you feel about your job right now, think about how you can make the most of the situation you are in to learn something, try something, or build one more connection before, perhaps, you move on. And if you love your job, take a moment to think about all the twists and turns, the steps and the bold moves that got you there. What a journey!
