A little more about me.

And why I live in Korea.

Have you ever changed careers and discovered that your dream job isn’t what you want?

Well, that happened to me.

When I began my working life, I started in the hotel industry. Working in a hotel is possibly one of the hardest yet most educational things you could do as a career.

You learn to communicate with and respect people of all backgrounds and cultures. You also learn to solve problems quickly, understand the importance of teamwork, and know how to act.

The restaurant floor is your stage, and the kitchen is backstage. You never take your emotions into the restaurant—always leave them at the kitchen door. That was one of the best pieces of advice I ever received.

After four years in the hotel industry, I moved into car sales. This is when I first encountered a more structured day (there’s no such thing as a structured day in hotels). I also learned that it is very easy to “volunteer” for work outside of your core work—the work you are employed to do—and all you’ll get is a pat on the back and questions about why you failed to reach your sales targets.

As a salesperson, my job was to sell cars. Yet, I happily volunteered to line up the cars outside the showroom, pick up customers’ cars, and restock the brochures.

Yes, this work needed to be done, but it didn’t sell cars and wasn’t my responsibility. Whenever I did these additional jobs, my smarter colleagues pounced on the customers entering the showroom. Meanwhile, I was outside, ensuring the cars were perfectly lined up.

Lesson learned: Focus on the work you are employed to do, then do the voluntary work if you have time.

The “dream job”.

While selling cars, I embarked on a university degree in law. The dream job I alluded to earlier was to become a lawyer. Helping people with legal difficulties and having a more structured way of life (nine ’til five) appealed to me, as did learning the history of law.

This involved four years of studying law to degree level and two years of completing the Legal Practice Certificate, a kind of professional diploma. All of this was done in the evenings and at weekends.

This meant I had to master my calendar. I needed to be at the university at 6:30 pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays during term times. This meant I was ensuring I made no appointments to see customers after 4:00 pm on those days.

Doing this for six years taught me the power of the calendar and introduced me to time management. To hold down a full-time job, complete a university degree, and have time to meet friends and go on dates with my girlfriend, I needed to master time management.

Lesson Learned: Make your calendar (or diary as it was called back then) the centrepiece of your time management system.

Shortly before I graduated, I changed jobs and went to work in a law firm. This was my first taste of office life. I worked in a cubicle with a computer and in-and-out baskets on my desk.

Suddenly, I no longer needed to run around and move. I could easily spend all day sitting at a desk processing paperwork and talking with clients.

Physically, it was a very easy life. Intellectually, it was challenging. But my weight shot up, my energy levels dropped, and I realised that the “dream” job was becoming a nightmare (and was slowly killing me).

I could see where this would lead. During my two years at the law firm, two partners died of heart attacks and one from cancer. Law is intellectually stimulating, but it’s physically dangerous. You don’t get enough exercise, and those lunches and dinners with clients do nothing for your waistline.

I realised that, as an individual, I needed to move a lot. Sitting at a desk all day does not work for me (my ADHD was now showing itself in adulthood). At this time, I began rethinking what I could do instead. Law, while an excellent job for many people, would lead me to an early grave. I needed time to think.

Lesson Learned: Life is not just about a career. You also need to consider your health and well-being.

That is when I hit upon the idea of teaching English in Asia for a year while I rethought my career. Asia fascinated me, and by teaching English, I could earn a little money, explore Asia, and think about my future.

My original plan was to stay in Asia for a year, return, and restart my career journey. That did not happen. Instead, I fell in love with Korea—a dynamic, beautiful country that fuses a traditional way of life with the best parts of modern culture.

I also discovered my calling: teaching. I loved it. I could move around the classroom, have the freedom to be creative in the way I taught different topics, and design my own curriculums.

My original plan to stay in Asia for a year turned into two, then three years. It was then that I decided that my future was in Korea and that teaching was my vocation.

Twenty-two years later, I still live in Korea. I still teach and still get to move around all day. It’s no longer teaching English; over the last seven years, I have been teaching time management and productivity, a topic I have been passionate about since middle school.

Lesson Learned: You may not find your dream job until later in life, but it is worth it to keep looking because once you find it, “you never work another day in your life”.

And that is how I arrived in Korea on 30 June 2002.