Entrepreneurship? Stranger things have happened!

I would have to say I stumbled into the world of business only when all else failed in my life. After working happily, OK sometimes not so happily, as an academic librarian for over 25 years, I walked into work one day.  I knew I was in trouble when my boss said, “I need to see you privately.”

Come to find out, he had a friend he wanted to give my job to, so I was summarily fired.  Seeing as the librarian world had recently treated me like garbage, I decided I needed a new boss, me!

The first idea that occurred was the need for a better way of dating past age 40. I had been thinking about a return to the dating scene ever since my divorce a few years earlier, but resisted the idea of online dating.  I guess it was my fear of ax murderers in disguise.  So I started my own more personal, local dating service.  After far too much serious consideration, I finally concluded, why not?

One thing led to another and before I knew it I had some great women clients, but not many men to match them with.  So I took the professional approach and used myself as bait on Match.com.  With a super general profile I thought I might attract some good men for my clients.  The first man I met this way was named “Tall Guy” online.  I found him quite sexy, and after only a few hours talking, I knew I had found a good one.  We married eight months later.  Ever since my new favorite saying is, “Stranger things have happened!”

After I got settled into my new life with “Tall Guy,” I decided to spend some quality time reconsidering my options.  I even hired a career counselor.  She was good. She convinced me to finally try the job I had always dreamed of, the life of a writer.  I spent the first half of my life organizing the books.  Perhaps it was time for me to write a few of my own.

Blogging was the perfect segue for me into my new business. I tried freelance writing first, but again ran into the whole boss problem again.  Those darn editors were always changing the content and the meaning of my articles.

Blogging set me free!  I finally found my voice as the Midlife Crisis Queen in 2007, and nothing could stop me after that.  I had found my reason to be here, to help others find new meaning in midlife.  And since I already had an M.A. in counseling psychology, I was set.

At least I thought I was.  Entrepreneurship is the hardest job I have ever loved. In the past eight years I have learned everything about the writing business; from freelance writing to blogging, research, social media, publicity and promotion, authorship, editing, publishing and everything in between.  Along the way I have made some AMAZING friends, some in places like Cambodia, Dubai and Australia.  Best of all, I have gained the support of thousands through my blogs and social media.

Today I cannot help but wonder, what would have happened if I hadn’t lost my job years ago?  Perhaps all of these other wonderful changes would have never occurred.  Whenever I try to decide the feasibility of some crazy new scheme, I simply say, “Stranger things have happened!”

Laura blogs at www.midlifecrisisqueen.com and you can follow her on twitter @midlifequeen

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