Ken Griffey Jr., 13-time MLB All-Star, retired from the baseball diamond and hit a house run along 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 Automotive 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 marketing consultant Joseph Liu says you possibly can, too.
Do you could have what it takes to vary careers?
Liu, who hosts the Profession Relaunch podcast, says Griffey is an effective instance of displaying how somebody can marry their previous career with their present curiosity.
“On the floor, taking part in baseball and taking pictures 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 exhibits how your career could 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 kids’s magician or an funding banker who grew to become a pair’s counselor, they typically share three traits:
- Readability: “They take time to get clear on what issues to them, what they really feel is lacking [and] what they need to have extra of,” he says. “Even when these individuals 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 precise factor and in addition outward confidence to undertaking 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 crushed path and comply with a nontraditional profession, so having that bravery to comply with your instincts, to belief your self is important,” he says. “With out braveness, the modifications are typically too small or too incremental to make a extremely main distinction in a significant means.”
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 strain… [that] you’re going to begin getting cash straight away,” 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 get pleasure from it [and] how a lot traction you achieve.”
Griffey first picked up images so he might attend his youngsters’ sporting occasions and never be a distraction. His presence at youth video games induced a buzz, as he was nonetheless an energetic baseball participant.
“I figured, no person’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 doubtless 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 stuff you need to do” is a crucial step. It’s straightforward to overanalyze a scenario and make assumptions, however a dialog with somebody who’s already working in that house will be encouraging and a shortcut to the knowledge it is advisable to make the change.
“The ultimate [step]… is to err on the facet of motion,” Liu says. “Actions are what open up alternatives… [Don’t] really feel such as you’ve obtained to make the right transfer into this new sector, however broadly transfer your self towards the course that you simply suppose may be promising.”
Must you pursue this professionally?
Studying a brand new ability or selecting up a post-retirement pastime doesn’t mechanically imply it must be a second profession. In actual fact, Liu cautions individuals in opposition to making that assumption.
“Simply since you get pleasure from doing one thing on the facet doesn’t imply you’re going to nonetheless get pleasure from it in case you’re doing it professionally, particularly in case your livelihood relies on it,” he says.
Liu says asking your self the next questions is a approach to overlay sensible concerns on a real curiosity or pastime.
- How energized do I really feel by this? “It’s necessary, in case you’re going to pursue a second profession, that it actually energizes you as a result of it takes a variety of effort to department off and do one thing totally different,” he says.
- Does a market exist for this? This can be a sensible, but vital query, which Liu says must be adopted up by:
- Do I’ve a means of reaching that market? Can I entry the shopper base or attain the individuals I need to work with?
- Can I make sufficient cash doing this?
- Do I’ve the abilities and credentials to be credible on this house? If not, can I achieve these abilities and credentials?
For those who resolve to proceed, Liu says don’t dismiss your earlier expertise and assume it’s irrelevant.
“There’s a variety of imposter syndrome when individuals change careers, they usually suppose ‘I didn’t come from this background, [so] I don’t have a proper to play on this new house,’” he says. “[But that’s] not helpful. For those who can embrace it and see it as a differentiator, that may really enable you promote a novel story to folks that separates you from conventional candidates.”
Must you pursue a second profession in retirement?
Though the promise of a second profession will 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 in a position and need to retire.
“For those who’re on the level of retirement and you’re feeling prefer it’s time so that you can simply sit back and calm down, 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 kind of distinctive.”
Perhaps the enjoyment of creating do-it-yourself bread is in sharing it with family and friends, however maybe your memoir would resonate with readers all over the world. The selection to pursue a second profession or flip a pastime right into a money-making enterprise is a call particular to you and your circumstances. No matter you resolve, being intentional is essential, in accordance with Liu.
“Pondering your profession goes to only naturally evolve by itself and that at some point that is simply going to work out…” he says. “That’s simply not what occurs.”
Photograph by Floor Image/Shutterstock.
