The Moral of the Story - Part 1

Career journeys are broad and winding. And by the time you rack up a few years on the job, you learn a thing or two.

In Season 1 of The Career Circus podcast Story Knight interviewed leading figures in PR, media, healthcare and more.

Each guest shared the moral of the story that spans the arc of their career.

Below are their takes in their own words.

Wendell Potter, Healthcare Executive turned whistleblower

“Serving others is what came to mind.

I came from a very poor part of the U.S., from the southern Appalachian area, grew up with people who didn’t have much money.

My mother always, her advice was, don’t get the big head, don’t forget where you come from.

It’s been a big part of my story.

I don’t know that I would have done what I did had I not realized the damage that I was doing directly and indirectly to people I grew up with who didn’t have much.

It is just, putting yourself out there and not be so self-focused and not chasing things - the next dollar - but to realize that if you really want to feel, if you want to be able to sleep at night, do something for somebody else, something that’s worthy rather than just the paycheck.

And also just the importance of moving beyond what you fear and being courageous and not letting fear hold you back or influencing how you think.

Be aware of all the fear that’s in your life and how yourself are often motivated and held back by fear in one form or another.”

Evan Shapiro, media executive turned cartographer and podcaster

“The long and the short of it is you have to know who you are and you have to stay true to that your entire career.

There are things that are going to be true about you no matter what happens in the market, unless you sell off pieces of yourself in exchange for titles or equity or pay.

And if you choose to do that and you find yourself dissatisfied or upset or on the outside looking in, then you only have yourself to blame.

But if you can figure out who you are, which is not easy, by the way, and you can stay true to that your entire career, then you will be the master of your own destiny.

But you have to do the work and you have to keep doing it every day because the market is going to force you out of your to make choices that you wouldn’t normally make that are not necessarily authentic to who you are.

And every time you do that, that’s a mistake.

And so no matter where I’ve gone, I don’t think there’s anybody who’s ever seen me or worked with me or knows me who believes that I am not authentic to myself.

Even to my own detriment, they might say at some point.

You look at where I am, and this is the case study. And I’m not the only one. There are plenty of others out there. But being true to yourself and not changing that, no matter what the market offers you, that is the moral.”

Farzana Baduel, accountant turned PR exec and thought leader

“I would say it’s about consequential encounters. So when I look at the pivots in my career, they have always been, I’d say it’s probably about four people in my life that I’ve met.

One lady was called Anna and she basically gave me a tax business within a month of me setting up my own because she was dying of cancer.

And she called me up and said, can I give you my business? And I said, I’ve got no money to pay you, but I’ll give you a commission.

She said, I just want you to take my business and treat my clients well. And then pretty much overnight, I inherited this 10-year-old business and I didn’t pay anything for from a total stranger.

So that was incredibly pivotal. And that taught me there’s kindness from out there.

And kindness may not come from people who look like you or the same religion or the same gender or the same tribe or your blood family.

They can be someone totally different that you don’t meet. And that really touched me quite deeply.

And then another kindness was amazing. a lady called Mariana who brought me the Ukrainian government and that opened up all the government work for me.

Another was a lady called Jenkin in the Conservative Party and she opened up all the doors in the Conservative Party.

So I’ve had incredible women champion me. And then obviously the fourth is my co-founder at Curzon. So I would say encounters by kind people.

And I think that the moral of the story is to be open, to be open and explore people from outside of your traditional groups. Because actually, if you look at all four of them, none of them came from my ethnic group, my religious group, my socioeconomic group.

They were all incredibly different and they changed my life and they didn’t want anything in return.

And that’s, I think, that, you know, kind of reinforces your faith in humanity.”