A few years ago, I seriously considered becoming a bookbinder.
I was transitioning from living in Asia to living in South Carolina — and that felt like a 50,000 foot drop in altitude (in reality it was a solid 4000 foot drop in altitude, but that’s not the point). Why bookbinding? I was going to need a new career, anyway. So why not?

That was my thinking anyway. It seemed like it might be a fun thing to do with my hands. I like books. I could be an artisan with a studio and tools.

Aside from the fact that my wife and I would have starved to death, this was a terrible idea.

The mid-life career change is tricky.

It feels like everything you’ve learned and the skills you’ve cultivated get thrown out and you become a beginner again. While it is true, sometimes we have to embrace the humility of becoming beginners again — you shouldn’t have to throw out the unique and hard-won skills that make you valuable to other people and organizations.

So if you’re in the place of mid-life career change, please don’t punt everything to make a living as a bookbinder (or some other such day-dreamy, antiquated craft). You are not “starting over.”

Ask questions like this:
What are the actual skills I’ve learned over time?
How can you build on these skills?
Where do I leverage my maturity?
Where do I embrace the humility of being a beginner again?