The Truth in Fairy Tales: The Voyage and the Return

“Only the images by which we live can bring transformation.”

?Helen Luke

When you hear the words “career trajectory” what do you think of? More than likely the assumption is that we are referring to “career advancement” or we visualise a graph that looks a little like this:

But in actuality, trajectory just means “the path” and your career path could look like any one of these:

Four months ago I made a rather unconventional decision to move from my Director of Global Accounts role with Haworth back into direct sales as a Global Account Manager. I made this decision for a number of reasons, but the three most important were; I needed to move back into a place where I had more balance, I wanted the daily connection with clients and through both of these, I am allowing myself to live a more authentic life.

After receiving very unexpected and overwhelming support from our leadership team, friends, family and colleagues, both within Haworth and from all over the world, I wanted to tell you this story in hopes of encouraging others to confidently write the career path that is uniquely what’s best for them; despite what societal pressures may demand.

In my first article in this series, The Truth in Fairy Tales: How to Surprise and Delight Our Clients, I discussed the classic legend of Slaying Dragons as an allegory to how we approach the sales process, face our fears and obstacles, and in turn, delight our clients.

There is a theory that there are only seven story archetypes that make up all of modern storytelling throughout history; Overcoming the Monster, Rags to Riches, The Quest, The Voyage and Return, Comedy, and Tragedy and Rebirth. The Slaying Dragon’s plot is a classic Quest archetype, usually starring The Unlikely Hero.

The spoken tradition of the fairy tale came long before the written page, and the history of visual storytelling goes back thousands and thousands of years back to when cave dwellers would use paint on the walls to create stories and myths. The modern fairy tale as we know it in the western world came to popularity in the 16th and 17th centuries in France.

The narrative voice in the tradition of storytelling looks at everyday activities, thoughts, ideas, hopes, dreams and makes sense of the lessons they show us that we can take into our everyday lives. Humans have a curious fascination with fairy tales because they help us on our search for truth, deeper meanings and glimpses into things that are truly greater than ourselves.

We connect with stories of great adventure, the search for riches in many forms, great love, overcoming fears, regeneration, revitalisation and restoration. ?Because that, truly, is what life is all about. We learn through the stories we hear, we invent and the ones we tell ourselves.

I like to think of the journey in my career as The Voyage and Return, a story that typically involves a journey to a magical land, something to conquer, and then the return home, usually wiser through a valuable lesson or having discovered something about ourselves that we were not aware of before. Western tales like The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, Alice in Wonderland, and the Wizard of Oz are all classic examples of the The Voyage and Return.

One of my favourite books is The Alchemist, an allegorical novel written by Brazilian author Paulo Coelho. It is a powerful story full of magical and fantastical elements, and delivers a strong message of life lessons and encourages us to fulfil our own Personal Legend. Santiago, a shepherd from Andalusia, dreams of a treasure as he sleeps in an abandoned church. He embarks on a journey in search of this treasure that takes him from Spain to Morocco and Egypt and back to Spain. Santiago meets a number of fabulous people who challenge him, support him, love him, guide him, work with him, and most of all, inspire him. In the end, Santiago finds the buried treasure in the same abandoned church where he first had the dream. The essence of the myth is, we often go looking for vast treasures in all the wrong places; what we are seeking might be right under us.?A genuine story of The Voyage and the Return.

And so it is with my career journey.

My journey to the magical land of leading an outstanding, professional sales team and working alongside the best of the best in our local teams has been nothing short of sensational. There have been many days full of magic, many obstacles to conquer, and now, my decision to return to “home”.

And I have learned countless lessons, and discovered so much about myself; who I am as a person, what motivates me, where I am most successful and effectual, where my power lies and the best way I can contribute.

Within Haworth, I have a family, with people truly on almost every continent in the world, who have walked and worked alongside me, encouraged me, pushed me, inspired me, guided me, challenged me and helped me to grow. I am eternally grateful that they have also supported and reassured me in this career decision. I have received so many messages from current and former Haworth members, clients and colleagues from around the world; each of them surprised, proud, some envious, excited, and cheering me on in this next chapter.

Thank you to each and every one of you.

How are you writing your career story?