Brenda Tamburo Andolina – Necessity IS the Motherlode of Invention: tBR Person of the Week

(Brenda Tamburo Andolina – connector of people and ideas)

Plato, you were so right.

Have you been able to stop for a minute to take in what’s happened to your life? Your career? Your grooming? While we’ve moved from hovering to hunkering to hanging – things, lots of things, have changed everywhere. Maybe you’ve lost some customers or a wonderful project you were working on evaporated overnight. And, if you’ve been downsized or furloughed from “work” (the old type, in an office, with less snacking and no kids), you now have no rules.

Feel off-kilter?

That’s entirely understandable in this window. But think about this: In your lifetime, there’ll be a handful of occasions when you will need to demonstrate true grit. A handful. And this may very well be one of them, so step up and be bold where you can.

A few years ago, my job was eliminated. I would say I was sad, but I had no time to think about that as I was busy mourning my father’s passing and getting divorced. But, in the time that followed through today, I found a new vocation and a better way forward for living my life. Necessity bore invention.

The Valentina Group was founded in 2019 and it’s been the greatest release of creativity and strategic thinking that I’ve been able to enjoy in quite a while. I LOVE my clients and appreciate the amount of trust they have in me and license they give me in championing their brands. I work with a fabulously talented group of freelancers amassed from collaborations throughout my career. I see opportunities everywhere, and I network with abandon. I now wake up with a tingle in my soul.

Looking backward, and forward as I help my college-bound daughter prepare for her future, I have come to realize something very important – I can rule my own mind. I have choices. Simple? No! It takes hard work, intellectual humility, introspection and openness to feedback. Decision strategist and author, Annie Duke, offers that ”the probability of a successful future outcome depends on your ability to approach your own beliefs with skepticism, look at fact as inputs, not borders, and allow yourself the what ifs.” To a greater degree than you might think or feel, you can steer your fate.

It’s my belief everyone should feel it’s necessary to reinvent on an ongoing basis. If you don’t have that mindset, you are more inclined to become uninspired, insecure, territorial, worried and sleepless. In the spirit of reinvention, in this period of insular living, choose one word to set your course. I do this every year or so. Expectations and Joy have held me most accountable. Dig deep, find your word, and let it inspire some new thinking.. I have my word etched in gold print by a friend and place it where I can see it every day.

Like it or not, you are now in the role of change agent – at home and at work. Steer.