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Waaaaaaay back in the deep recesses of the Dot Com Bust, but before the company I had worked for had gone under, I was in a panic. I couldn't accept the cliff that I was approaching, much less the inevitable freefall that was to follow. I bought a pile of GMAT study guides and pored over them during my lunch hours. I hated math, but I figured that re-learning algebra was preferable to being unemployed without fallback. A business degree would be like a suit of armor that would protect me from the recessions that affected the less-marketable folk.
Problem was, I was miserable following this path. Granted, no one is herself in a market downturn, but for some reason the studying wasn't coming naturally. I realized that my consternation was from a deep-seated fear that I was wasting my time. But I was far too practical to not have a Plan B.
A friend suggested that I see her career coach. I didn't see the point; after all, I KNEW what I needed to do. I just needed to understand what was keeping me from getting the job done. I agreed to call her coach, with hesitation.
My first call with Kimberly Wiefling went differently than I had imagined it would.
"I'm going to ask you a series of questions," she said, "and I want you to answer them as honestly as you can."
My impulse was to think I was wasting my money. How would asking me questions provide me with that I didn't already know about myself? I was paying her to tell me what she thought about my situation.
That day I learned something new: Coaches aren't doctors; they don't prescribe. Rather they find the area of consternation and, with your awareness, help you to dissolve it. Kimberly didn't tell me what to do; she brought me closer to my own truth and equipped me with a game plan for my chosen path.
Kimberly used her science background to approach my situation, asking me "If/then" questions and extracting my rationale for how I was approaching my career. I learned that a key assumption behind everything I did was that I needed some form of credibility to enable me to do what I loved.
I had wanted an MBA, I told Kimberly, because I wanted to speak and inspire others; maybe even coach. But even with this revelation there was a hidden agenda. After an hour of questions we got down to a truth that I, a practical woman, didn't want to admit to herself. At the end of the day, I wanted to tell stories.
"And you need an MBA to do that?" Kimberly asked.
"People would listen to me if I had one," I said, hearing the absurdity in my statement.
With this new truth I couldn't move forward with business school. I wasn't sure what I should do and ended up taking several months to figure things out, but I knew that I needed to find more direct means of reaching my goals. And this required a new bravery, of learning to off-road. I wanted to go to business school because it was like a highway leading me in the direction I wanted, but until I was courageous enough to take the smaller routes--or even forge my own--I would never get to exactly where I wanted to go.
That session was very powerful. After that meeting I spoke with Kimberly occasionally, and subscribed to her outstanding newsletter. I felt I was cheating, gleaning her wisdom with no effort on my part. She was a natural writer, and funny to boot. In all of her missives she used a word to describe the ethic behind everything she believed--scrappy. This isn't a very glamorous word, but it applied to me, someone who busted her butt and was learning to work smarter and with more integrity. Of course, years later, I encouraged her to blog.
I met Kimberly when she was just starting to grow her practice, in 2001. Today, she's a full-time coach, speaker, and writer. She's the embodiment of someone who has forged a unique path. I read of her new courses and enterprises, including ongoing work in Japan, and felt a sort of kinship, as I was now rolling on my own path. When she sent me the galley for her new book--alas, part one of a new series called The Scrappy Guides!--I was excited. Finally Kimberly found some time to cull her wit and wisdom into a guide. I had to read it.
Kimberly's
