Financial services to floristry: it’s never too late to follow your heart!

Do you feel happy at the start of a new working week and confident that your job will bring you satisfaction, if not great rewards?  If the answer’s ‘yes’, lucky you – stick with it!!

However, if Monday morning fills you with a feeling of gloom and you are already ticking off the days until the next weekend then maybe it’s time to take stock and think again about whether your working life is all that it should be.  Just remember that it’s never too late to follow your heart and start again.

I’m speaking as someone who made a dramatic change myself at the age of 50, moving from a fast-paced London career in financial services to re-train as a florist.  Although my work was very interesting and challenging, the financial services environment was becoming increasingly stressful and with a long daily commute as well I was exhausted.  I knew things needed to change, but I had to think very carefully about the impact it might have on me and my family, particularly financially.

In the end a sense of ‘now or never’ won out and I enrolled on a part-time City & Guilds course in floristry, to see whether I could turn my keen interest in gardening into a marketable skill working with flowers.  Two years further on and I have now successfully completed two diplomas in floristry and have launched my own wedding and event floristry business ‘Helen Jane Floristry’, receiving great feedback from clients.  It has taken a lot of hard work and dedication (not to mention several ‘what am I doing?!’ moments), but the satisfaction I am getting from doing something I am passionate about far outweighs the rewards of my previous career.

Last week Jane Packer sadly died at the age of 52 – the same age that I am now.  The name might not mean anything to you, but for those of us involved in the world of floristry, or who simply have a love of flowers, Jane is recognised as one of the pioneers of the industry and one of the most well-known florists of her time.  And she was clearly passionate about what she did – you can see that by simply flicking through the beautiful illustrations of her work in one of the many books she had published.  I am glad to read that Jane decided on her career path very early in life and that her dedication to following her heart paid off.  For me it just drives home the point that it is better late than never when it comes to doing what you love – you just never know what lies around the corner.

So if you’re thinking of making a career change, think about how to make it happen rather than focusing on the potential pitfalls.  To quote Mark Twain “Twenty years from now you’ll be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do, than by the things you did do.”

And if flowers are your passion too, then feel free to ask me about the steps I have taken towards turning that passion into a career.