Unfulfillment proves mother of reinvention

For years the economy has been forcing people to take stock of their lives and, in some cases, re-invent themselves.

And yet not all of those people have started over after getting pink slips. Some were left unfulfilled by jobs with competitive salaries and benefits and thus took a chance on major career makeovers.

Jared Nichols, a strategy consultant and author of "Leading the 21st Century: the CEO's guide to Thriving in a Volatile & Uncertain Future," said barriers to creating new businesses are all but gone and people are better equipped, better connected and far more resourceful than at any point in human history.

"In the 20th century the individual was subjected to a hierarchy of information, resources and connections," Nichols said. "Today, if an individual sees a market need, they can launch a business to address that need virtually overnight." Fred Spring, 51, saw opportunity in Internet marketing and two years ago co-founded 98 to Go, based in Atlanta.

Until then, the Brookhaven, Ga., resident was a vice president of marketing research for Turner Entertainment.

"It was a great ride, but I couldn't control the economy so I responded to it and re-invented myself," he said.

A year after his layoff in 2009, Spring said, he was helping a client develop website traffic for his business using Internet marketing and was struck by how successful their efforts were. The client was so pleased he suggested they launch a business that would help other companies have the same peace of mind.

While the economy was the driving force in Spring's remake, it is less a factor for the vast majority of people, which is evidence, Nichols said, that unprecedented access to information is doing more than informing us about the external environment. It is showing us opportunities to make money or find job satisfaction.

Boomers like Spring started nearly half of new U.S. businesses recently, according to Kansas City's Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, which tracks and encourages entrepreneurship. Many were pushed into those careers by the difficult job market.

Baby boomers between 55 and 64 created 21 percent of new companies in 2011, up from 14 percent in 1996, a foundation study shows. Those 45 to 54 created 28 percent of companies, with younger entrepreneurs starting the remainder.

Jarrett Helms, 36, and Amanda Brown, 44, are good examples of the new crop of entrepreneurs. Brown, a former teacher and interior designer, said she just wasn't happy with her life. She finally decided to jump "off the hamster wheel" and start over.

"I discovered that in letting go, the pieces that eluded me, the parts of my life that I wanted most, were right there in front of me," Brown said. "Things did not have to be perfect in order for perfect things to happen." And so in July 2011, Brown said she had a "come to Amanda moment" and replanned her entire life.

"I have rid myself of the American anxiety and know exactly what I want to do with my life instead of thinking about it and dreaming about it," she said in a telephone interview from France. "I think I will hit the tipping point when people discover my photography prints and I get a children's publisher." It does not always mean more money. Happiness also plays a role in their choices.

Brown said, "I'm living below the American poverty level right now, but I love what I do." Helms, who left a well-paying high-powered job as a consultant four months ago to launch a baby apparel company called Cradle & Thread, said he fell in love with the notion of a for-profit company that had a charitable mission at its heart.

The idea came to him, he said, soon after he began questioning what he was doing with his life. The answer, Helms said, came in June 2011, when he was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis and landed in the hospital.

"I decided with a lot more clarity that I wanted to do something that I felt good about, that I was contributing to my community," he said. "When I had that revelation, the question became: How?" Because he and his wife, Christina, were relatively new parents, they knew there was a stable market for baby apparel and so Helms began working on the concept nights and weekends. On Nov. 1, 2012, he launched Cradle & Thread, and in December he left his corporate job.

For every $100 bought on the company's site, www.cradleandthread.com, it donates an entire outfit of clothing to a needy child.