Ken Griffey Jr., 13-time MLB All-Star, retired from the baseball diamond and hit a house run together with his second profession: images.
After taking part in 22 seasons—with groups together with the Seattle Mariners, Cincinnati Reds and Chicago White Sox—Griffey started photographing professionally, overlaying Main League Baseball, Main League Soccer, the NFL, Indy Automobile and maybe most notably, the 2025 Masters.
The 55-year-old baseball legend reworked a pastime right into a rewarding “second act,” and profession change advisor Joseph Liu says you’ll be able to, too.
Do you’ve got what it takes to vary careers?
Liu, who hosts the Profession Relaunch podcast, says Griffey is an efficient instance of displaying how somebody can marry their previous career with their present curiosity.
“On the floor, taking part in baseball and taking photographs could seem utterly unrelated…” he says. “[But] a part of images is about anticipating and deciding what picture you’re making an attempt to seize, so on this case, his sports activities instincts can really assist enhance his images. It simply reveals how your career might evolve as your life evolves.”
Liu has interviewed greater than 100 individuals who modified course mid-career to pursue a brand new curiosity. Whether or not they have been an Military sniper turned youngsters’s magician or an funding banker who turned a pair’s counselor, they often share three traits:
- Readability: “They take time to get clear on what issues to them, what they really feel is lacking [and] what they wish to have extra of,” he says. “Even when these folks don’t know precisely what their second act goes to be, they will outline the traits of [it],” whether or not that be flexibility, extra autonomy or extra which means.
- Confidence: “They amass each the interior confidence to know they’re doing the suitable factor and in addition outward confidence to mission that to others,” he says. This confidence originates from “[defining] their values and [making] choices that serve these values,” he explains.
- Braveness: “It typically takes a little bit of a leap of religion to step off the overwhelmed path and observe a nontraditional profession, so having that bravery to observe your instincts, to belief your self is important,” he says. “With out braveness, the adjustments are typically too small or too incremental to make a very main distinction in a significant method.”
Beginning a second profession
Understanding it may be troublesome to make that leap, Liu recommends beginning with microactions.
“Dip your toe in with no extra stress… [that] you’re going to begin being profitable immediately,” he says. Begin small by taking a night course or shopping for that piece of kit that lets you discover that pastime of yours.
“Check it out. See the way it goes. See the way it sits with you… how a lot you take pleasure in it [and] how a lot traction you acquire.”
Griffey first picked up images so he might attend his children’ sporting occasions and never be a distraction. His presence at youth video games prompted a buzz, as he was nonetheless an energetic baseball participant.
“I figured, no one’s messing with the photographer. Let me decide it up; let me attempt it,” he stated in an interview on Mornings @ The Masters. “I obtained a pair photographer mates who despatched me a few cameras and lenses and stated, ‘Right here you go.’”
Though at the moment Griffey seemingly wasn’t contemplating images as a second profession, his actions launched him to a new ability, and Liu says speaking to people who find themselves presently “doing the belongings you wish to do” is a vital step. It’s straightforward to overanalyze a state of affairs and make assumptions, however a dialog with somebody who’s already working in that area might be encouraging and a shortcut to the data you could make the change.
“The ultimate [step]… is to err on the aspect of motion,” Liu says. “Actions are what open up alternatives… [Don’t] really feel such as you’ve obtained to make the proper transfer into this new sector, however broadly transfer your self towards the path that you just suppose is perhaps promising.”
Must you pursue this professionally?
Studying a brand new ability or choosing up a post-retirement pastime doesn’t robotically imply it needs to be a second profession. The truth is, Liu cautions folks towards making that assumption.
“Simply since you take pleasure in doing one thing on the aspect doesn’t imply you’re going to nonetheless take pleasure in it in the event you’re doing it professionally, particularly in case your livelihood depends upon it,” he says.
Liu says asking your self the next questions is a approach to overlay sensible issues on a real curiosity or pastime.
- How energized do I really feel by this? “It’s vital, in the event you’re going to pursue a second profession, that it actually energizes you as a result of it takes a whole lot of effort to department off and do one thing completely different,” he says.
- Does a market exist for this? It is a sensible, but needed query, which Liu says needs to be adopted up by:
- Do I’ve a method of reaching that market? Can I entry the client base or attain the folks I wish to work with?
- Can I make sufficient cash doing this?
- Do I’ve the abilities and credentials to be credible on this area? If not, can I acquire these abilities and credentials?
Should you determine to proceed, Liu says don’t dismiss your earlier expertise and assume it’s irrelevant.
“There’s a whole lot of imposter syndrome when folks change careers, and so they suppose ‘I didn’t come from this background, [so] I don’t have a proper to play on this new area,’” he says. “[But that’s] not helpful. Should you can embrace it and see it as a differentiator, that may really aid you promote a singular story to those that separates you from conventional candidates.”
Must you pursue a second profession in retirement?
Though the promise of a second profession might be thrilling, Liu says it’s not for everybody and nobody ought to really feel compelled to proceed working, in the event that they’re ready and wish to retire.
“Should you’re on the level of retirement and you’re feeling prefer it’s time so that you can simply sit back and chill out, I really feel like the selection is yours,” he says. “Nobody ought to really feel pressured to essentially have a second act or encore profession.
“It goes again to the concept that everybody’s profession path and profession journey is sort of distinctive.”
Possibly the enjoyment of creating home made bread is in sharing it with family and friends, however maybe your memoir would resonate with readers around the globe. The selection to pursue a second profession or flip a pastime right into a money-making enterprise is a choice particular to you and your circumstances. No matter you determine, being intentional is vital, in keeping with Liu.
“Pondering your profession goes to simply naturally evolve by itself and that someday that is simply going to work out…” he says. “That’s simply not what occurs.”
Picture by Floor Image/Shutterstock.