Resilience is the Ability to Reinvent Yourself When you Start from Scratch with Maria Rosati

Maria believes resiliency comes from one's ability for self-reinvention. Maria sees herself as a resilient person because she reinvents herself all the time. It's part of her personality, how she is wired. She believes that the old rules we were taught about staying in the same role or with the same company throughout your career, no longer work. “We are all living longer and may have several careers. As an active member of Chief, the private network for female executives, I see it all the time. We are all in some sort of career transformation,” she stated.

Building yourself for what's next

In her last corporate role, Maria worked for 11.5 years in corporate communications for a financial firm. She constantly felt like she was a “cog in the wheel”. "I was walking around work with a feeling that they would be totally OK with or without me. It's not personal, I was just keeping the machine going but did not have an overwhelming sense of purpose." Maria's resiliency came from taking back control of her career path. It was all about taking control, making moves, and not waiting for things to happen to her. "I knew it was a matter of time before I left the company. As an eternal optimist, I spent the last two years of my corporate career plotting my next move. I spent a lot of time networking, talking to vendors, learning about the latest industry trends and best practices so once I left I had a roadmap for my future. I took control of what was to come."

Important today more than ever

“Most large corporations, especially public companies, spend a lot of time reorganizing to meet financial goals and deliver value to shareholders. What they don’t do is deliver value for the employees. I believe that is what the ‘Great Resignation’ is all about”. Maria chose not to go back and get another corporate job as she knew she would be pigeonholed into another corporate communications role which was too narrow in scope for her. She also looked around and did not see many women over age 60 in senior roles in communications. "I saw this as an opportunity. I felt it was my chance: I either put in three years and reinvent myself in a new organization but be pushed out because of my high compensation or I spend the same amount of time on starting my own company which I could run for the next 20 years."

Maria soon realized that the target audience she intended to build her marketing consultancy upon was not an ideal client base so she pivoted to focus on another demographic. It’s about being agile and able to constantly pivot. "Choosing the next door you open"

Maria believes that staying in the same role for a long period of time leads to stagnation. "You stop learning and just become a cog in the machine which is how she felt. She feels that our career paths no longer need to be linear. We are all going to have multiple jobs and possible careers. There is no stigma to leaving like it used to be.