Ken Griffey Jr., 13-time MLB All-Star, retired from the baseball diamond and hit a house run along with his second profession: pictures.
After enjoying 22 seasons—with groups together with the Seattle Mariners, Cincinnati Reds and Chicago White Sox—Griffey started photographing professionally, protecting Main League Baseball, Main League Soccer, the NFL, Indy Automotive and maybe most notably, the 2025 Masters.
The 55-year-old baseball legend remodeled a passion right into a rewarding “second act,” and profession change marketing consultant Joseph Liu says you possibly can, too.
Do you’ve got what it takes to alter careers?
Liu, who hosts the Profession Relaunch podcast, says Griffey is an effective instance of exhibiting how somebody can marry their previous career with their present curiosity.
“On the floor, enjoying baseball and taking photographs could appear fully unrelated…” he says. “[But] a part of pictures is about anticipating and deciding what picture you’re making an attempt to seize, so on this case, his sports activities instincts can truly assist enhance his pictures. It simply reveals how your career could evolve as your life evolves.”
Liu has interviewed greater than 100 individuals who modified course mid-career to pursue a brand new curiosity. Whether or not they have been an Military sniper turned youngsters’s magician or an funding banker who grew to become a pair’s counselor, they often share three traits:
- Readability: “They take time to get clear on what issues to them, what they really feel is lacking [and] what they wish to have extra of,” he says. “Even when these folks don’t know precisely what their second act goes to be, they will outline the traits of [it],” whether or not that be flexibility, extra autonomy or extra that means.
- Confidence: “They amass each the interior confidence to know they’re doing the correct factor and in addition outward confidence to undertaking that to others,” he says. This confidence originates from “[defining] their values and [making] choices that serve these values,” he explains.
- Braveness: “It typically takes a little bit of a leap of religion to step off the crushed path and comply with a nontraditional profession, so having that bravery to comply with your instincts, to belief your self is crucial,” he says. “With out braveness, the adjustments are usually too small or too incremental to make a very main distinction in a significant method.”
Beginning a second profession
Understanding it may be troublesome to make that leap, Liu recommends beginning with microactions.
“Dip your toe in with no extra strain… [that] you’re going to begin earning money immediately,” he says. Begin small by taking a night course or shopping for that piece of apparatus that lets you discover that passion of yours.
“Try it out. See the way it goes. See the way it sits with you… how a lot you take pleasure in it [and] how a lot traction you achieve.”
Griffey first picked up pictures so he may attend his youngsters’ sporting occasions and never be a distraction. His presence at youth video games brought about a buzz, as he was nonetheless an lively baseball participant.
“I figured, no one’s messing with the photographer. Let me decide it up; let me attempt it,” he mentioned in an interview on Mornings @ The Masters. “I bought a pair photographer mates who despatched me a few cameras and lenses and mentioned, ‘Right here you go.’”
Though at the moment Griffey doubtless wasn’t contemplating pictures as a second profession, his actions launched him to a new talent, and Liu says speaking to people who find themselves presently “doing the stuff you wish to do” is a vital step. It’s simple to overanalyze a state of affairs and make assumptions, however a dialog with somebody who’s already working in that area could be encouraging and a shortcut to the knowledge you’ll want to make the change.
“The ultimate [step]… is to err on the facet of motion,” Liu says. “Actions are what open up alternatives… [Don’t] really feel such as you’ve bought to make the proper transfer into this new sector, however broadly transfer your self towards the path that you simply suppose could be promising.”
Must you pursue this professionally?
Studying a brand new talent or choosing up a post-retirement passion doesn’t mechanically imply it ought to be a second profession. The truth is, Liu cautions folks in opposition to making that assumption.
“Simply since you take pleasure in doing one thing on the facet doesn’t imply you’re going to nonetheless take pleasure in it if you happen to’re doing it professionally, particularly in case your livelihood is dependent upon it,” he says.
Liu says asking your self the next questions is a strategy to overlay sensible concerns on a real curiosity or passion.
- How energized do I really feel by this? “It’s necessary, if you happen to’re going to pursue a second profession, that it actually energizes you as a result of it takes quite a lot of effort to department off and do one thing completely different,” he says.
- Does a market exist for this? It is a sensible, but obligatory query, which Liu says ought to be adopted up by:
- Do I’ve a method of reaching that market? Can I entry the client base or attain the folks I wish to work with?
- Can I make sufficient cash doing this?
- Do I’ve the abilities and credentials to be credible on this area? If not, can I achieve these expertise and credentials?
In the event you resolve to proceed, Liu says don’t dismiss your earlier expertise and assume it’s irrelevant.
“There’s quite a lot of imposter syndrome when folks change careers, and so they suppose ‘I didn’t come from this background, [so] I don’t have a proper to play on this new area,’” he says. “[But that’s] not helpful. In the event you can embrace it and see it as a differentiator, that may truly make it easier to promote a novel story to folks that separates you from conventional candidates.”
Must you pursue a second profession in retirement?
Though the promise of a second profession could be thrilling, Liu says it’s not for everybody and nobody ought to really feel compelled to proceed working, in the event that they’re ready and wish to retire.
“In the event you’re on the level of retirement and you are feeling prefer it’s time so that you can simply sit back and loosen up, I really feel like the selection is yours,” he says. “Nobody ought to really feel pressured to essentially have a second act or encore profession.
“It goes again to the concept that everybody’s profession path and profession journey is sort of distinctive.”
Perhaps the enjoyment of creating do-it-yourself bread is in sharing it with family and friends, however maybe your memoir would resonate with readers around the globe. The selection to pursue a second profession or flip a passion right into a money-making enterprise is a call particular to you and your circumstances. No matter you resolve, being intentional is vital, in response to Liu.
“Considering your profession goes to only naturally evolve by itself and that sooner or later that is simply going to work out…” he says. “That’s simply not what occurs.”
Picture by Floor Image/Shutterstock.
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