In 2012 I was hurtling down a path that would ultimately end my executive career when I very publicly resigned in frustration from a job running a non-profit. I had to start a completely new journey. At times very difficult and frightening, I’m amazed at how easy the first two milestones were and how difficult the third one was. The goal for this next stage of my life made itself evident almost immediately. The decision to shift from strategy consultant to CEO coach took longer but the process was fairly standard. The hard part was rebuilding John Furth. I had jettisoned a professional identity forged over 25 years. I didn’t want to just go back to a “purer” former self. For one, that former self (pre-MBA) didn’t have or need a lot of money. For another, there were valuable life experiences I couldn’t just throw away. I had become very good at listening for cues from others how to shape my professional persona. Early in this journey, however, I realized I had selective hearing. Good stuff got through but messages about the less pretty, hurtful and unwanted parts of my being didn’t. I was suddenly confronted with my high need to be right at all costs and that my difficulty tapping into my emotions, which in professional settings worked in my favor, suddenly was a liability. I was becoming very unsatisfied with myself and what little I had achieved. I was not happy. Six months into the COVID pandemic, a talked with a life coach who understood me better than anyone I had worked with before and was prepared to go to battle with my demons. Unfortunately, his methods were brutal and left no room for discussion or contemplation. He was blasting away my shiny, status-conscious suit of armor that was shielding me from the truth: that I had little or no self-worth. I increasingly felt defenseless and unable to get back into action. What little confidence I had left was slowly depleting. In other words, my self-worth was getting worse, not better. I had to fire him. At the time, Stanford Business School was rolling out a program to train professional coaches how to recognize and “unlearn” mindsets and behaviors that were sabotaging them. I came face-to-face with the damage my need to achieve and be successful was doing to me. I learned once and for all how to silence the voices of doom and gloom that plague almost every human being in moments of stress and anxiety by letting them rant and rave but not reacting. One day I discovered they were gone. Finally at the age of 63 I was ready to do something I had never had the courage to do until then. With two associates I started my own business helping professionals adjust to life after a corporate career called Executives Over 50. Given what I had put myself through, you can imagine It was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

In 2012 I was hurtling down a path that would ultimately end my executive career when I very publicly resigned in frustration from a job running a non-profit.

I had to start a completely new journey. At times very difficult and frightening, I’m amazed at how easy the first two milestones were and how difficult the third one was.

The goal for this next stage of my life made itself evident almost immediately.

The decision to shift from strategy consultant to CEO coach took longer but the process was fairly standard.

The hard part was rebuilding John Furth.

I had jettisoned a professional identity forged over 25 years. I didn’t want to just go back to a “purer” former self. For one, that former self (pre-MBA) didn’t have or need a lot of money. For another, there were valuable life experiences I couldn’t just throw away.

I had become very good at listening for cues from others how to shape my professional persona. Early in this journey, however, I realized I had selective hearing. Good stuff got through but messages about the less pretty, hurtful and unwanted parts of my being didn’t.

I was suddenly confronted with my high need to be right at all costs and that my difficulty tapping into my emotions, which in professional settings worked in my favor, suddenly was a liability.

I was becoming very unsatisfied with myself and what little I had achieved. I was not happy.

Six months into the COVID pandemic, a talked with a life coach who understood me better than anyone I had worked with before and was prepared to go to battle with my demons.

Unfortunately, his methods were brutal and left no room for discussion or contemplation. He was blasting away my shiny, status-conscious suit of armor that was shielding me from the truth: that I had little or no self-worth.

I increasingly felt defenseless and unable to get back into action. What little confidence I had left was slowly depleting. In other words, my self-worth was getting worse, not better.

I had to fire him.

At the time, Stanford Business School was rolling out a program to train professional coaches how to recognize and “unlearn” mindsets and behaviors that were sabotaging them. I came face-to-face with the damage my need to achieve and be successful was doing to me.

I learned once and for all how to silence the voices of doom and gloom that plague almost every human being in moments of stress and anxiety by letting them rant and rave but not reacting. One day I discovered they were gone.

Finally at the age of 63 I was ready to do something I had never had the courage to do until then. With two associates I started my own business helping professionals adjust to life after a corporate career called Executives Over 50.

Given what I had put myself through, you can imagine It was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.