I tried out a lot of different things. I read a lot of books. I talked to a lot of people. I went out of my to try new things and go to new places to see the world from a different perspective.
In highschool I thought I wanted to be an exotic animal vet, so I volunteered at a zoo and got a job cleaning kennels in a vet clinic that took care of the zoo's animals. I hated the clinic, loved the zoo. But I didn't like the beuaracracy of running a zoo, it was so much h more than caring for animals. Could we get the funsin to expand our elephant habitat because the AZA abruptly changed standards and we were 50ft short? Forced to remove the elephants all together who had lived there 35 years. I didn't want to deal with that.
I worked in sales. I heard that if you can sell anything you can do anything. Sounded great, people buy stuff all the time. Hated it. But learned how to market things and get people to want them, and applied that presentation "sell" style to how I marketed myself for jobs in the future.
I worked for a city painting murals one summer. I wanted to be an artist. Got sick of having people tell me what to mpaint or that they thought it "needed somthing". Realized being in art was not just about creating, but also about that whole selling thing and beuaracracy mixed back in with a dose of poverty pay.
I reached out to businesses and successful people through SCORE and had the privilege of great mentors. I learned from my father and his network.
From other people I learned a great deal about the depth of careers (if it can be done there is someone somewhere being paid to do it). And I explored, learned, listened, and experienced.
I found something that fit eventually. I got an apprenticeship in plumbing and pipefitting with a small business owned by an "uncle" (friend of my father's). And took off on a journey from there in pipefitting and welding that covered seven states through the years. I left it to learn new interesting trades and continue exploring the world and growing as a skilled tradeswoman and a person.