From Losing My Dream Job to Building My Dream Business

By Amanda Duff, M.S., SHRM-CP

© Becca Dwyer

For years, I thought I had it all figured out.

I had created what I considered my dream job. A senior HR role in a professional services firm, surrounded by colleagues I respected, doing work that challenged and fulfilled me. I was on track to becoming a partner, something I had worked toward for over a decade. My path felt linear and secure. I could see exactly where I was headed… until the day everything changed.

The company was sold.

Almost overnight, my role was dissolved. There wasn’t a soft landing, no carefully mapped next step. I went from feeling essential and valued to wondering where I fit at all. For the first time in my career, I felt truly purposeless.

What followed were a few difficult years of searching for my next meaningful position. I took jobs that looked great on paper, but never felt fulfilling. I chased stability, leadership, and a high salary, thinking those would fill the gap, but they never did. I was working, but I wasn’t thriving. I was surviving, but not building something that mattered to me.

I realized I had been defining my worth by my position, my company name, and my career trajectory. And when all of that was taken away, I didn’t know who I was without it. That’s a terrifying place to be, especially for someone who has always been driven by achievement.

The turning point came during one of those “on paper” roles when I asked myself a question I had been avoiding: If I keep going like this, where will I be in five years? Will I be proud of it? The answer was.. no.

So, I did the scariest thing I’ve ever done professionally: I stopped chasing other people’s definitions of success and started building my own. I launched my own HR consulting and leadership coaching business.

At first, it felt like jumping off a cliff without a parachute. I had no guarantee it would work. But I also had no desire to keep living in the safe-but-unfulfilling cycle I had been in. My mission became helping both individuals and businesses bridge the gap between where they are and where they want to be, because I had lived that gap myself.

The strategies that got me through were the same ones I now share with my clients:

• Redefine your identity. You are not your job title. Your skills, values, and experiences are bigger than any single role or employer.

• Get curious instead of fearful. Every “failure” or setback carries clues about what matters most to you.. if you’re willing to look.

• Build your safety net before you leap. I made a financial and emotional plan so that when I launched my business, I could focus on growth without constant panic about survival.

• Invest in your network. The relationships I’d built over the years became my first clients, my biggest cheerleaders, and my strongest referrals.

• Give yourself permission to grow slowly. I didn’t need to replace my full-time income in month one. I needed to build something sustainable.

© Becca Dwyer

Today, my business is thriving, and, more importantly, I’m thriving. I get to work with incredible leaders, help organizations solve real challenges, and design a life that allows me to be present for my family, including my two young daughters. Losing my dream job was never part of the plan. But it turned out to be the push I needed to create something even better.

Sometimes the ending you didn’t ask for becomes the beginning you truly needed.

Connect With Amanda

www.nowwhathr.com

@nowwhathr