The Dead Company Club

“‘Tis dogs’ delight to bark and bite,” thus does the adage run. But I delight to bite the dog when placed inside a bun.”                                                                                                                                                                                                           – the Yale Review, 1895

“Lets open a hotdog stand downtown,” said a friend one day as we surveyed the park from the unemployed bench. I frowned. Hotdogs were not part of my plan for corporate re-entry. I had haunted job boards, pestered my network of recruiters and former colleagues, and chased well-dressed business people cutting through the park on their way to somewhere important. I would rise again. I had no intention of heaving my accomplishments aside and starting over.

New possibilities

But my long-slumbering brain stirred. I wouldn’t really be selling hotdogs – I’d be in the consumer products business. I’d write a business plan, hire some operators and apply my marketing tricks. As soon as I had the formula down, I’d open more stands. Voila.

Suddenly the cloud darkening my future lifted. I didn’t have to work with very important people at very large companies to be a success. I never imagined that my business school classes about forming Newco would be useful, but I was glad to be wrong. All I needed was to lighten up – and open up – to new possibilities.

Two steps to rewriting your future

Alternate careers are not an admission of defeat. There are plenty of stories about people who made a change successfully, such as the investment banker turned baking instructor. Talk to your former colleagues. You might be surprised at how many are asking themselves whether they should consider a drastic change. Do some communal brainstorming and let your ideas get wild and crazy.

Next, take the list home and chew on it. Come up with a reason NOT to do each thing before you discard it. You’ll benefit even if you choose to continue in your former career because, very simply, creative thinking changes how you feel. It replaces those crappy, insecure, unemployed feelings with momentary freedom. And who knows: maybe you’ll become the next Wiener Wonder.

Laurie Phillips does not own or operate a hotdog stand but she does write business plans for those that want to do so.

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