Before You Let Your Kids (Or Yourself) Quit, Look For A New Angle

My daughter tried a bunch of different instruments. She tried clarinet. She tried trumpet. And then one day she saw a guy playing the sax over on 24th Street. She was like “wow.” It just spoke to her. Now she knows everything there is to know about saxophones.

That same kid who could never get Spanish down – now she’s fluent in sign language in just 18 months. It’s finding these different subcategories. She does love languages. She just doesn’t love the one she had been studying.

It’s a lesson that is universal whether you’re considering a new job or raising kids. There’s all these broad strokes where people think I don’t like sales very much or I don’t like school very much. Maybe you just haven’t found your subcategory.

Give It All Second Look

The first step: give yourself some credit. Whether work at Hint or Square or Salesforce, there are a million different jobs. You are going to be a rockstar at one of them. It’s about understanding what are the different pieces within a company—narrowing that list and figuring out what you do like.

And it’s the same for your kids. For years, my oldest daughter said “I don’t really like sports, it’s not my thing.” Then she started taking tennis lessons, and I realized individual sports versus group sports is much easier for her to control. She switched from that to horseback riding, She’s a quiet kid. She loved it. She had this connection. I never would have considered horseback riding a sport. But doing hunter-jumper for abs is ridiculous. She uses more of her body in doing that than most other athletes do.

Treat your search like an experiment. Look around at all the things you “know” you don’t like, and at anything that sparks curiosity. Play with it.

Spend Some Quality Time Getting To Know Yourself

Also look at your own history and personality. You need to really be honest about that. Do you want to run a team? Or do you not want to run a team? I worked for someone at AOL; she was the number one salesperson at AOL for years. She was the smartest person at AOL because she said I just want to deal with my clients, I don’t want to run a team. She was smart because she knew what she was good at. Are you and individual or a team leader or manager? Either is a great option. It just depends on how you’re built.

Kara Goldin is Founder and CEO of Hint Water, the fastest growing flavored water in the United States. Kara started Hint when she couldn't find a healthy water that tasted great without questionable additives like sweeteners. Hint Water has 0 calories, 0 sugar, and 0 diet sweeteners in a can be purchased online at www.drinkhint.com in a variety of flavors including Blackberry and Watermelon, in both still and sparkling.