This is my time to shine!!!!

I worked in talk radio for 10 years, from my early 20s to my early 30s. I had moved up from an assistant producer (which is a monkey that pulls news stories or does low level research) to an executive producer of national radio programs to becoming a corporate liaison with a wide latitude of responsibilities.

I was very proud of what I had accomplished. I was regularly flown across the country with very exciting and open-ended instructions from the home office. Instructions like "launch new show" or "see to corporate interests" at an event.

Additionally, I would regularly see famous or interesting people. I've spoken to actors, politicians, journalists and authors. It was exciting, plain and simple.

The problem was, after 10 years, the only way to really move up in the business was to be willing to move to Washington, D.C. or New York City. I didn't want to move, and I didn't want to stay in a static position in the industry. So I quit.

Learning bookkeeping and business consulting has been awful and humbling. It's terrible to go from a business where you already have your 10,000 hours put in and then have to start at scratch all over again. I hated being ignorant in radio, and it took years to get some chops in that business. Now I'm the ignorant newbie again, and it sucks.

On the plus side, I lost 30 pounds just from the lifestyle change. As it turns out, you have to be far more sober with people's tax returns than you have to be with their on-air talking points, so there you go.

To answer your question, I'm making about the same money and I don't have to move to some big "important" city to earn it. Emotionally I'm WAY better. Intellectually I'm humbled but that's what learning is all about. And on top of it I am not fat anymore, and I think that's my favorite thing to come out of all this, mostly because it was so unexpected.