Changing Directions

I was sitting in the offices of a mid-size telecommunications company in Columbus, Ohio on a Monday morning in 1998, getting ready to start my first day of training with the company.  I was nervous, sitting on the new beige office couch, waiting for my trainer to retrieve me from the lobby.  There was a magazine sitting in front of me, something telecommunications- or technology-related, and I opened it to a random page to an ad for Belgacom, the Belgian phone company.

My heart stopped a second and I felt an overwhelming urge to jump up and leave the building immediately.

Belgacom North America had invited me to interview with them a couple of weeks before in Cincinnati, and I had liked what I saw.  I liked it so much, in fact, that I nearly accepted a job there.  Instead, I accepted this job with the other company bidding on my experience, after much angst and about 27 versions of pro/con lists to help me make the decision.   When I opened the magazine, I had a sharp stab of bitter regret, not guessing but knowing I had made the wrong decision.  It was as clear as if someone had been sitting next to me, telling me that very thing.

Soldiering on for two days, I tried to quell the doubts in my head, and attempted to focus on the training courses.  On Tuesday late afternoon, I called Susan, the director at Belgacom N.A.

“Hi Susan, this is Kristin.  I interviewed with you… yes, thank you.   Well, um, this is a very strange moment for me, but I’m calling to tell you that I made a mistake.  I have an overwhelming feeling that I should have accepted the job with you and I want to find out if there’s any chance there is still a position there for me.”  Even to my own ears, this sounded ridiculous.

After a short pause, Susan politely but firmly told me that although she appreciated my call and she had thought very highly of me during the interview process, they had decided to restructure the team, and the position no longer existed.  I thanked her for her time, dejected and curiously out-of-sorts.  Had my intuition completely led me down a rabbit hole?  

The next morning, I was surprised to see a call from Susan’s office coming in, and when I returned her call at the lunch break, I was relieved by what she said:  “We changed our minds too.  We thought you were perfect for the team, and we’d like to have you.  When can you start?”

Then came the awkward task of calling my new boss at the new company, who was in another city entirely, and explaining to him that I was leaving training and not taking the job after all.  He asked me if something had happened at training to cause me to leave, and I said no.  I tried to explain that my heart was telling me to take another direction, and I was sorry to have wasted his time.  He was most gracious, under the circumstances, and wished me luck.

My career at Belgacom N.A. started most auspiciously the following week, and as I scheduled my first trip to Brussels to meet the global team, my passport was stolen along with my purse in a movie theater, and I had to scramble to replace it in two weeks.   It was a fantastic experience for two years, as I had the chance to tour the Nike plant in Belgium during a customer meeting, and the Nestle headquarters in Switzerland.  I had the best meal of my life on a spring day at the base of the Alps, overlooking Lake Zug.  White tablecloths covered glass tables set on the lawn of a beautiful chateau outside Zurich, and a silver dome covered coconut-encrusted pork tenderloin, dainty bundles of carrots and zucchini tied with a scallion, and white fluffy rolls.

I fell in love with Belgium and traveled to Bruges and Ghent and Antwerp, and attended the Belgacom Open golf tournament in Oostande, on the west side of Belgium on the shore of the North Sea (I was giddy spotting Nick Faldo just feet away from me).  I took the train to Paris on a regular basis, navigating the transportation systems with relative ease.   I sampled waffles and frites avec mayo on the streets of Brussels and wandered solo through the tourist areas, finding independence and strength.  

I had made the right decision the second time, and I made the most of it.  I'm a big fan of second chances. 

Interestingly, I came to a similar crossroads immediately after 9/11, when I had the chance to be the Director of Marketing for the Red Cross in Atlanta, or work in the corporate communications department for Lanier, which is now Ricoh.  In this case, while the Red Cross appealed to my philanthropic side, Lanier appealed to my desire for travel and advancement.  Little did I know that my heart was leading me to this beautiful life I have now, since I met my husband at Lanier.   I’ve learned to trust myself.

Have you ever made a wrong turn and somehow got back on course?

Have you ever had to make an awkward call or make a tough choice to follow your intuition of the direction you wanted to go?   I’d love to hear your stories too.  

Don’t apologize for changing your mind; follow your heart and you’ll go where you need to be.