From Professional Malcontent to Passion Catalyst

Eight years ago today, I launched my career as a Passion Catalyst. It wasn't that glorious of a launch, really. More of a dribble. But I committed to it, took a step, and quickly discovered how amazing it felt to actually be doing work you're meant to do.

For years prior to discovering my Passion Catalyst work I was what I describe as a Professional Malcontent. I had been on a path I wasn't meant for, chasing a dream that in the end really didn't mean all that much to me. And I was unhappy with it.

Fast track to mediocrity

I studied business in school, with a focus on marketing and international business. Coming out of school I saw myself as a mover and a shaker, convinced that I was going to climb the corporate ladder to the top. CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Face on the cover of Fortune magazine. All of that.

But my rocket ride to the top never did manifest. I kept moving through a series of jobs, growing bored and leaving or "being given the opportunity to seek other opportunities" (that is to say, canned).

One day, looking in the mirror, I had an epiphany of sorts. "You're on the fast track all right," I said to myself, "but it's not the fast track to the top. It's the fast track to becoming Dilbert. It's the fast track to becoming bitter, disillusioned, and stuck."

I knew something had to change. I just didn't know what, or how.

The light bulb moment

By early 2001 I had been treading water for a couple years as a self-employed marketing consultant focused on the tech industry. When the dot com implosion came, it was just the catalyst I needed. I was suddenly self-unemployed, with no potential business on the horizon.

Trying to drum up new business, I had a bazillion coffees or so with various contacts from the tech industry here in Seattle. It was during one of these conversations that the light bulb about my Passion Catalyst work finally came on.

After talking business for a bit, the conversation turned to a company he wanted to start based on a passion of his. It was his dream. We talked about that for an hour, and by the end of the conversation he was vibrating with excitement. "I can't go back to work now, Curt!" he said, half in jest. His brain was on fire with new ideas, new possibilities, new ways of seeing things that he hadn't seen before.

Later that day I thought, "What is that? Because that happens to me all the time!" Looking back, I saw it happen over and over where people would come out of conversations with me completely lit up with new ideas, perspectives, and possibilities.

"Hmmmm...," I thought, "maybe this has some value." A potential way to make some money, perhaps?

What exactly is it that I do?

There was just one problem - I didn't actually know what I did. It just happened naturally. I didn't have a conscious approach or methodology. Hard to monetize something you're not sure how to replicate.

I can see now that it was the combination of two main things. First, I'm naturally curious, so I ask a lot of questions. And in answering my questions, people would find insights they didn't realize were there.

Second, my brain is an idea-machine when it listens to someone else talk. So I would always be lobbing out ideas, or alternative possibilities, or ways to approach things. Some of them were just right, while others sparked still other ideas from the person I was talking to.

But at the time I didn't see that. So instead I talked about it, trying to figure it out. Ultimately I realized that it had to be more than a one-time conversation for people to get long-term value out of it.

"Aha!" I thought. "I can be a coach." 

After a couple months of exploring it, I realized that I can - and often do - talk a good idea to death. If I was going to do anything with this one, I had to jump in and get started.

The guinea pig

For me, jumping in and getting started meant finding a guinea pig client. As luck would have it, another of the people I had connected with in my schmooze-a-thon looking for new consulting business was at a career crossroads, and open to testing the waters with me.

Eight years ago today, I took a risk and jumped into the unknown. Eight years ago today, I had my first coaching session with that guinea pig client.

After we wrapped up that first session I remember thinking, "I don't need a guinea pig. This is who I am! This is what I do!" I had been nervous and uncertain before, but came away with a feeling of confidence that comes when you find your groove.

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by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst

Comments

[Matt Walker]

i am proud to say that i was one of those first clients back in 2001. thanks curt - your talent, skill, compassion, and energy is infectious and made a significant impact in developing passion for my work.

[Dave Crain]

Curt,

Great story - congratulations on finding your passion AND taking the leap.

[Curt Rosengren]

Thanks Matt! I'm glad the effects are still rippling through your work. :-)

Dave, thanks. Though I have to say the leap kind of took me. It was much easier to leave the comfort and safety of the known when I had already been booted out of the nest, so to speak. ;-)

[Jeff Wang]

Curt, just read your post. You have been doing great. I actually share a similar career goal like yours, and the difference between us is that you kind of achieved the desirable outcome, while I am now only at the very begining.

Your posts here are inspiring, please keep the good job going. Thanks.