His life-changing moment: 9:20 a.m., Sept. 11, 2001
World Trade Center miss leads executive coach to pursue self-examination for career pivots
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Chuck Garcia was supposed to be on the 107th floor of the World Trade Center on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.
He was scheduled to deliver a talk at 9:20 a.m., but due to a last-minute change it was moved to that afternoon. He wasn’t in the building when the planes hit.
“One phone call because of somebody’s conflict is what has helped to drive my life in ways that I never could have predicted,” he said.
The close call left Garcia, then a marketing manager at Bloomberg, examining what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. Garcia, an accomplished mountaineer, uses a mountain analogy to describe his approach to career progress (and hey, that’s fine with me, the more alternatives to the career ladder we can use, the better!).
Today, Garcia coaches executives as the founder of Climb Leadership International and has written A Climb to the Top and The Moment That Defines Your Life. I recently spoke to him about what he’s learned about career pivots.
People tend to be impatient to make progress in their careers, Garcia said. They overestimate what they can accomplish in one year and underestimate what they can achieve in ten.
This leads people to put themselves under pressure to achieve. But just moving faster doesn’t mean you can take a shortcut to success. After all, you can only take one step at a time.
“The assumption is they can speed their way to the top of the mountain faster than what nature allows them to,” Garcia said. “When you try to rush nature, it is not kind back to us. So slow it down, be patient, let time and patience work for you, not against you.”
Garcia urges people considering a career pivot to take the time for self-examination to determine what career moves make sense. This was a skill he had to develop himself.
“I did not have in my mind a set of guiding principles for how to decide anything important.
Whether it was deciding I’m going to have a cheeseburger or I’m going to make a career change, they were the same weight. That’s insane!
Maybe a career change should involve more than deciding whether I want ketchup or mustard on my burger, but to me — I couldn’t tell the difference.”
Instead of making big decisions impulsively, Garcia turned to the social science of emotional intelligence and the philosophy of Stoicism to inform his thinking, as outlined in his books.
He pointed to several ways others considering a career pivot can give sufficient thought to making a change:
Reach out for advice. Make it easy for people to give their honest feedback by coming prepared not only with the problem but possible remedies you’ve considered.
“Some people feel that they need to go this alone. If there is one thing where you need a partner, it’s in this. Because the consequence of getting your career pivot wrong just causes you to further fall into the abyss,” Garcia said.Do your research, keeping an open mind. Read books and find tools to help you understand whether the direction you’re heading aligns with your passion and purpose.
“If you can find that, you’ve got a good shot on your next pivot,” he said. “If you don’t, I find people repeat the same old patterns. They get locked into the misery, it’s just in a different place.”Progress requires purpose. Rather than relentlessly churning out work, Garcia urges anyone considering a career change to devote some energy to the path ahead.
“Give yourself the time and the resources to not let the urgent crowd out the important. People are too dang busy with what they’re doing, but often it’s not productive and it doesn’t serve the soul.”
Overall, Garcia emphasizes the process of discovery. He loved his work at Bloomberg, but his near miss led him in new directions. It doesn’t take a tragedy to make a change. Turning within and to trusted advisors can help your compass point in a worthwhile direction.
Happy navigating,
Bridget
🧠 Learn more about Garcia’s work and career guidance at chuckgarcia.com.