The MBA of Myself

In my line of work, I often find myself in conversation with highly experienced consultants and business owners who have exciting qualifications.  And when these highly qualified people get a little stuck here’s what I often hear:

“I’m finding it hard to define myself and articulate who I am. Maybe an MBA will help.”

Confession time.

It’s at this point of the conversation that I usually break in and beg them not to walk that path. I instead ask them to consider doing an ‘MBA of Me’.

What’s an ‘MBA of Me’?

It’s a turn-of-phrase I’ve coined to describe the process I used to successfully reinvent myself and my business.

Here’s my story.

In the past two years I’ve had to let go of most of the personal, social and professional constructs I’d boxed my life and business into. I had no choice. I was chronically sick and my (now) eighteen year old publicity business had been massively disrupted by the internet.

I could see it had come down to making a choice between disrupting myself or taking a job.

I needed to become someone else to get healthy.

I needed to do something else to support my family.

As it turned out, the two went well together. New values demand to be activated with new behaviours. And in business, an evolution has to engage the market.

Have you ever seen the fast regrowth after a bush fire where tiny green plants sprout in the blackest of landscapes?

Well people do it too. If you’ve ever had a nervous breakdown or chronic fatigue then you’ve experienced your body and mind saying to you “Enough of that, let’s reboot.”

What did I do to reboot?

Well I embarked on one year of Tantric Facilitator Training. It promised to shift out all the emotional baggage that was making me so unwell. It also promised I’d have access to ‘more of myself’ to live with. I didn’t even know what that last part meant, but I said yes!

After deep personal excavation and processing via eight residential retreats, I completely rewired myself. Then I brought what I’d learned about myself back into my work.

Five months on, in July 2014, my previously disrupted business rose from the ashes.

If you love working for yourself, this ability to evolve and redefine yourself as required is a huge skill no MBA can ever teach you. Nor can an MBA teach you the courage to move through fears and resistance to refresh, re-envisage and newly articulate your ‘why’ in life.

Only you can do that.

Given there’s plenty more disruption ahead of us all, it’s worth getting a head start.

Have you ever been forced to completely reinvent yourself? Did it teach you skills that you’ve had to call upon again and again in your business life?