It's Never Too Late to Change Direction

The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide that you are not going to stay where you are.

I have had a few jobs in my time. I have worked for a London Costumiers who made costumes for films and theatre productions. We had a few famous faces through the reception. My favourite job was working for an Architect's firm down Shaftesbury Avenue (it was very, very social and lots of fun), but I did spend lots of my career working in some of the London Law firms. I was a Legal Recruitment Consultant and also worked in HR in a London Law Firm.

I think sometimes you move from job to job and then you wonder how you ended up in a job that doesn't really suit you. As time went on I was pretty much stuck in an office in middle management, where I would look out the window and wish that I was doing something else. Believe me I am not knocking any type of job as I loved it for the first three years, but then I really needed a change.

My point of this post is that you have to follow your gut. I was in my mid 30's and I knew that I wanted to run my own business doing something creative. How I got working in Human Resources, I am not sure!

So, I started doing some short courses in jewellery making and as I finished one course I was desperate to start another. So, I finally ended up signing up for a City and Guilds in Silversmithing in The Sir John Cass School of Art in Whitechapel, East London. It was a four year course and I would go after work two evenings a week.

It was such an amazing place, full of lots of noise, banging, drilling and sometimes a bit of swearing! I had the most amazing tutor Paul, whom I used to drive completely crazy. We had certain projects that we had to complete to get the qualification and I would try and get these completed quickly so that I could work on my own designs. I really did test his patience.

Back at my job though, I knew that I didn't want to do it anymore and there is nothing harder than trying to pretend you are happy in your job when you are not.

My employers had probably sussed that I wasn't as committed as they wanted me to be (or it might of been me selling my jewellery in the staff room at lunchtime)! So, I was made redundant.

It was a real shake up and you never feel that you are ready. I had even worked out how long my redundancy would last before I had to return to a "proper" job. I couldn't possibly make a living doing something that I love, can I?

It was now or never and I started working from home and selling at Spitalfields Market every Sunday. My jewellery business was about to begin …….