{"id":5,"date":"2012-08-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-08-21T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/raasen\/the-joy-of-reinventing-yourself\/"},"modified":"2012-08-21T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-08-21T00:00:00","slug":"the-joy-of-reinventing-yourself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/raasen\/the-joy-of-reinventing-yourself\/","title":{"rendered":"The Joy Of Reinventing Yourself!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"reinventing<\/a>When I was in high school, the only thing I thought about was being a\u00a0coach. I have always loved being involved in sports.\u00a0The picture to the left is our high school baseball team in 1965.\u00a0We went to the state tournament my senior year. I went on to college to get my teaching<\/strong> degree. I graduated from Mayville State University in Mayville, North Dakota<\/strong> in 1969. I was offered a teaching<\/em> and coaching<\/em> position in Hatton, North Dakota<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

This was the beginning of a 45 year career in education<\/strong>. At least, that is what I thought, at the time. We spent the next 11 years in Hatton<\/em>.\u00a0They were very good years. I grew personally and professionally. The skills I learned have lasted me a lifetime. I learned how to be a leader. I learned how to speak in front of people. Above all, I learned a great deal about human behavior.<\/p>\n

Things change. In 1980 my wife, kids,\u00a0and I decided to move to Minneapolis<\/strong>, Minnesota. It was\u00a0difficult to leave education<\/em>. It was also difficult to leave our home area. Our daughters were 12 and 9, at the time. It was time to reinvent<\/strong> myself. I resigned my position and we headed for the cities, without a job.<\/p>\n

I interviewed and received an offer, as an entry level programmer<\/strong>, with the Unisys Corporation. I spent the next 8 years writing computer<\/strong> programs. During that snapshot in time, our daughters were getting braces, on their teeth.\u00a0The corporate benefits came in pretty handy. As life would have it, it was time to reinvent<\/em> myself again.<\/p>\n

In 1988, I accepted an offer with Hayden & Associates to become an IT Corporate Recruiter<\/strong>.\u00a0Compensation was straight commission<\/strong>. The thought was very unsettling for my wife and I. We spent many a night talking about it. Finally, my wife, Jesse said let\u2019s go for it. We have never looked back. I am in my 25th year recruiting<\/strong> IT professionals. In fact, I have been independent for the last 20 years.<\/p>\n

When Y2K came along, IT recruiting went dormant for about 3 years. What are we going to do? It was time to reinvent<\/span> myself, for the\u00a0fourth time. I\u00a0took the necessary education<\/span> and obtained my real estate<\/strong> license to sell residential real estate<\/em>, in the state of Minnesota.\u00a0I ran my real estate<\/span> business along side my recruiting<\/em> business.\u00a0The real estate business is something I had thought about, for some years. I am sort of a handyman. I was a math teacher, so the numbers just dance in my head.\u00a0I also\u00a0 enjoy sales.<\/p>\n

I spent 10 years in\u00a0real estate. We all know what has happened to the real estate business, since 2006. It was time to reinvent<\/strong> myself, for the fifth time. I terminated my real estate license<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In 2008, my wife and I bought a portfolio of charged off credit card debt<\/strong>, with financing from an investment group. Our mission was to collect as much of the face value, as possible. Our business model was small claims court<\/strong>. We have been working the portfolio<\/strong> for the last 4 years. It has been a very good business for us. Again, I run this business\u00a0along side my IT recruiting business.<\/p>\n

As I look back at the last 44 years,\u00a0it has been an adventure. It is an adventure I wouldn\u2019t trade for the world. It has not always been easy, but the rewards have been worth it. Having my independence<\/strong> is probably the greatest reward of all. I have taught high school math, coached high school basketball, written computer programs, recruited IT professionals, sold real estate, and bought and collected credit card debt.<\/p>\n

There is common ground, in all of these opportunities. First and foremost, you need to be self motivated<\/strong>. You need to run with a sense of urgency, be willing to learn quickly, be willing to be diligent, be able to deal with stress, really appreciate the feeling of independence<\/em>,\u00a0enjoy trying something new,\u00a0and have an understanding of effective time management. I have often said, act like you know where you are going and believe that you are going to get there!<\/p>\n

Last year, a very good friend approached me with an career opportunity.\u00a0I still have my recruiting<\/span> and collection<\/span> companies in play. Was it time to reinvent<\/strong>, for the sixth time?\u00a0 I looked at it and decided it was too good to pass up.<\/p>\n

If you would like to feel the excitement that goes with reinventing<\/strong> yourself, click the button on the right side, the top, or the bottom, of the screen and let your adventure begin! Step out of your comfort zone. I wish you all the best!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I was in high school, the only thing I thought about was being a\u00a0coach. I have always loved being involved in sports.\u00a0The picture to the left is our high school baseball team in 1965.\u00a0We went to the state tournament my senior year. I went on to college to get my teaching degree. I graduated […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2615,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,14,15,2,3,16,17,18],"tags":[19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33],"class_list":["post-5","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-real-estate-agent","category-coaching-sports","category-credit-card-debt","category-empower-network","category-entrepreneur","category-family","category-home-buying","category-interviewing","tag-coaching","tag-collection","tag-commission","tag-computer","tag-credit-card-debt","tag-education","tag-independence","tag-license","tag-mayville-north-dakota","tag-minneapolis","tag-portfolio","tag-programmer","tag-real-estate","tag-recruiter","tag-recruiting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/raasen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/raasen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/raasen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/raasen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2615"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/raasen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/raasen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/raasen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/raasen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/raasen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}