In the Shondaland series The Magic of Moving Forward, we’re bringing you forward-thinking stories that illustrate how moving on from something is a way to level up. From women finding joy by throwing themselves divorce parties to vulnerable tales about entering new friendships and relationships, to discovering pleasure in life after giving up a bad habit — there’s no one way to flip the page and find happiness all over again.
At the end of 2022, like many people who were fed up with their toxic work environments and burned out from a nonexistent work-life balance, I made the difficult decision to walk away from my job in the tech industry.
When my final workday arrived, I thought it would feel like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders, and I would get the sense of freedom I so desperately needed. I imagined myself strutting through the city streets en route to cocktails with my closest friends while The Devil Wears Prada soundtrack rang through my head.
However, the reality was that I had never felt more unsettled. The anxiousness I was attempting to rid myself of was replaced with a debilitating fear of the unknown. I knew I made the right decision to leave my job, but I wasn’t confident about how to navigate my new unemployed existence. As time passed, this newfound freedom felt more like a failure.
With this extraordinary sense of uncertainty, I sought guidance from business owners who also experienced significant setbacks and faced adversity but were able to believe in themselves and stay grounded in their values enough to push through and see success on the other side.
While their origin stories are different and they represent a wide range of industries, they each provided inspiration and insight into the importance of investing in yourself, believing in your strength, and knowing if it’s time to move on in your career.
Finding your power
When Debrah Menashy, owner of the spin studio Loft Cycle Club, learned at the onset of the global pandemic that her business partner had made the difficult decision to leave the business in order to focus on her growing family, she had a choice to make: Would she cut her losses and close up shop or decide if the business that was built for a duo would work as a solo act?
“After the initial unsettling feeling, I set my emotions aside and transitioned into action mode,” Menashy recalls. She was surprised by how capable she felt and determined she was to make it work. Menashy says those initial “feelings of uncertainty and anxiousness” surprisingly turned into relief. She was compelled to rely solely on her instincts and decision-making abilities, gaining the ability to adapt.
Without the safety net of a partner to share in business decisions, Menashy was propelled into becoming a leader she didn’t know she could be. She gave herself grace to try new things even if there was a chance of failure. Her reasons for leaving corporate finance and her passion for building an inclusive spin studio became all the more important once she was the sole person responsible for the business.
While fitness studios were shutting their doors in the midst of the pandemic, Menashy needed to be resourceful to keep her barely one-year-old business afloat. Along with offering online classes, she opened up socially distant outdoor classes and a temporary bike rental program for those who wanted to spin in the safety of their home.
Overcoming adversity
The pressure to make it work against all odds is a similar sentiment shared by Kevin Catin, owner and founder of athletic clothing brand Only the Bosses. While the world was finding new ways to function within lockdowns, Catin was dealing with a life-threatening cancer diagnosis that forced his thriving business to be put on pause. He was fighting for his life at the age of 30, and his new family was uncertain of their future.
“I felt morbid,” Catin says. “I just wanted to give up.” After a series of extended hospital stays and numerous surgeries, he recovered. His gratitude for life was at an all-time high. “I was determined to build something meaningful and a potential legacy for my children,” he adds. “I changed my eating habits. I changed my mindset. I prioritized my joy, passion, and the meaning of my work. I began to appreciate the preciousness of life.”
For Catin, even before death came knocking at his door, he was always a person who figuratively “jumped out of a plane first” and asked if he could fly later. When it came to the pursuit of his passions, there were no limits. Catin not only jumped back into his clothing brand but was then inspired to develop another venture: a cleaning business that he named after his daughter. The darkest time of his life became the catalyst for new and amazing endeavors.
Acknowledging issues
For many business owners, recognizing there is a problem is the first step in solving it. Shannae Ingleton Smith, co-founder and CEO of the talent firm Kensington Grey Agency, was already on an upward trajectory in 2020 when the world shifted with the Black Lives Matter movement after the murder of George Floyd. As one of very few agencies that focused solely on Black content creators, Smith’s agency and her roster of talent became inundated by external opportunities.
Many brands and entertainment outlets wanted to elevate diverse voices. While it should have been an exciting time for Kensington Grey, assessing whether the influx of new opportunities were legitimate added overwhelming stress and distraction. “I wanted to give myself and my team the chance to figure out what places and opportunities,” Smith explains, “were genuine and meaningful versus surface level, disingenuous, and performative.”
The experience challenged Smith’s decision-making and inner strength to persevere, and the divisive discourse began affecting her physical and mental health. “I didn’t leave my home for months,” Smith recalls, “and when I finally went outside, I wouldn’t know whether people were trying to literally create space because of social distancing or if it was overt racism.” The pressure to keep it together as the matriarch of her family and the CEO of her business was daunting.
Nonetheless, Smith understood it was an important moment for her business, which could be at the forefront of this transformative time and solidify Kensington Grey as a leader in their industry. “Sometimes, just showing up is enough, so I just showed up all the time, every day,” Smith says. “I pushed through knowing there was a light at the end of the tunnel.”
Before Smith knew it, the world opened up again, and Kensington Grey was being invited to Paris Fashion Week and the White House. What initially seemed like an insurmountable obstacle for her ended up revealing a new level of determination that launched her into a new stratosphere of success.
Challenges are inevitable, but having the resilience to push through, the fortitude to try new things, and the courage to keep your head up are the keys – often leading to much greener pastures or higher heights.
I-Yana Tucker is a Toronto-based writer who writes the newsletter Out of Office. Follow her on Instagram @iyanabanana.
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