What I learned from my career crisis

After a major career transition, five hard-won lessons: break through inertia, keep initiative of your career, invest in yourself annually, know your drivers, and take calculated risks.

The most dangerous moment in a leader’s career isn’t when the numbers dip or the market shifts—it’s when you realize your own motivation has quietly evaporated, and nobody else seems to notice.

10 years ago I experienced a major career crisis. Between 1999 and 2009, I launched and grew an American consultancy firm in the Dutch market, together with a team. In 2008, I had come to a point where I was getting less and less pleasure from my work. In fact, I was increasingly unable to give the 100% motivation that the company was entitled to.

Key takeaways

• You owe it to yourself and your company to regularly step back from daily operations and ask whether your current role still aligns with your evolving motivations and the changing needs of your business.
• Leaders who take full ownership of their professional direction—using trusted peers as sounding boards—are far better equipped to make bold, timely decisions rather than waiting for circumstances to force their hand.
• Your market value is not static, so deliberately invest in your own growth through both formal education and informal learning to stay relevant and energized as a leader.

What should I do? My employer was happy and told me that I fulfilled my role well. But deep down I knew something needed to change. In my daily work I was not able to reflect and pay attention to my personal development. Also, one of the economic characteristics of a consultancy firm is that turnover fluctuates strongly. I could not afford to lose my focus.

Did I really want to leave the company that I had built? Could I let go of "my child"? I thought about starting my own business. But was that a wise thing to do? This entire process lasted more than a year.

I finally took the decision. I moved on and decided to do a start-up. It made me happy to see that the consulting firm continued to perform just fine in the first years after my departure. My ‘kid’ was an adult now.

I would like to share my five most important lessons from this time of a major change for me.

Break through inertia. We humans are creatures of habit. But everything around us changes. You change, your customers change and your company changes. Pro-actively respond by regularly standing back and assessing whether you are still on the right track.

Always keep the initiative about your professional direction on your side. If you conclude that something needs to change, do it! Use a sounding board to assist you with the process.

Invest in yourself. Your market value from ten years ago is no longer the same. Keep learning: Informally through books, podcasts and seminars. And formally via short or long official education programmes.

Get to know your own drivers in a profound way. If you think you know yourself, think again. It really isn't that easy. Although I was already doing a lot with drivers professionally, I too got to know myself better again because of my last crisis.

Take calculated risks. I am convinced that almost everyone in the developed world gets chances in life. You must learn to see them and have the courage to seize them. Of course it is true that you do not know in advance whether you will succeed. That's why it's called an opportunity. Make peace with that.

The Chinese have two characters of their own for the word crisis: 危機. The first character refers to threat. The second character refers to chance ...

Or, as Winston Churchill said, "never let a good crisis go to waste!"

True leadership means having the courage to reinvent yourself before circumstances force your hand—because the hardest person to outgrow is the version of you who once succeeded.

Would you be interested to become a professional user to help others unlock their Ikigai (purpose?). Our certification could be interesting for you.

Over to you.