Breaking out of Corporate America

I grew up thinking that I needed to get a good job and start
climbing the corporate ladder. Start on the ground floor and work toward a
six-figure salary and the corner office. And in the back of my mind I
recognized my foremothers worked hard for years to get through the glass
ceiling. That was even more reason to work onward and upward, right?

When I got out of school, I mapped by quest to the top. In
my case, I wanted to be a Creative Director at a major advertising agency. This
of course, started at the bottom. And like the strategy used in chess, each
move I made was not only well thought out, but it was sometimes planned one or
two moves ahead.

The path was graphic artist, graphic designer, senior
graphic designer and then design manager. Finally I was one step below creative
director. And then I looked up. It was then that I realized I didn’t want to
move up. I saw what corporate America was doing to the people above me. The
demands, the responsibility and long hours weighed heavily on them. Already I
my job was demanding. The next step up would be even more of that personal
sacrifice. Is this what I really wanted? The money was sure nice.

But if I didn’t move up, what was I going to do?

I chose to take my 17 years of experience in corporate world
and start a business. Corporate America was really the best education I could
have gotten. I was responsible for budgets, expenses, and reports of all kinds.
Not to mention, finding the talent I needed to get the job done.

I took all the experience I had gained and invested it in
myself. With the help of a business partner, we divided the tasks by our
strengths and got together a business plan. We were going to start placing
creative talent. Who better then the people that actually did the work? Four years in, we’ve become the 326th
fastest growing privately held company in America. It has been an incredible ride and I could
not have done it without the skills I gained in the corporate world.

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