5 Women Who Reinvented Themselves (and the World)
We were born for reinvention—to remake our lives, to bring back and revive our true purpose and potential. We are here to be changed and to make change, not remain static.
The path to reinvention can take many forms—from listening to an inner voice, to recognizing an unexpected opportunity, to challenging and overcoming either self-doubt or the status quo.
We are happier when we’re making progress, learning, and growing.
Reinventing doesn’t mean devaluing or eliminating all that came before you. In fact, all of the decisions, insights, struggles, triumphs, achievements, and disappointments have made you the valuable person you are —and even qualify you for the next step in your reinvention.
Reinventing doesn’t happen in a day. It happens one day at a time.
If you are feeling the urge to reinvent, here is some inspiration from five women who reinvented their careers and lives:
Gretchen Rubin
Gretchen Rubin
Gretchen Rubin is the best-selling author of Better Each Day and host of the popular podcast Happier.
Rubin went to law school, where she said she “drifted” into her career in law, although she dreamed of being a writer. She even clerked for Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.
One clue that sparked her to reinvent her career was the envy she felt while reviewing her law school alumni magazine. She was not envious of those who were highly successful lawyers —she was envious of alums who were authors. She decided to start writing, realizing that she’d rather “fail as a writer than succeed as a lawyer.” Eventually, this led her to her find an agent and to write her book, Power, Money, Fame, Sex, a social criticism.
She now has two children, three bestsellers, and a wonderful podcast. In her TED Talk she said that her professional reinvention allowed her to finally find (and be) her true self: “Leaving law to become a writer is the most important single step that I’ve taken in my entire life to become Gretchen.”
Key takeaway: After years of downplaying it, she listened to her inner voice and acted on it.
Emily and Betsy
Emily Nunez Cavness and Betsy Nunez
Emily and Betsy are the co-founders of Sword and Plough. Raised in a military family, the Nunez sisters were surrounded by people who inspired them.
Emily Nunez chose a career in the military, and during her sophomore year in college at theUS Army Airborne School, where she noticed how frequently military surplus, such as tents and sleeping bags, were thrown out. In her senior year as an ROTC cadet at Middlebury College, she discovered Jacquelyn Novogratz, founder of Acumen—a nonprofit global fund that uses entrepreneurial approaches to fight poverty. This sparked a thought: wouldn’t it be great to use that surplus for something else, like fashion?
Over a beer, Emily casually mentioned the concept to her sister Betsy, which sparked the development of the idea and the birth of their company Sword and Plough, which works with veterans (from product concept to order fulfillment) to repurpose military surplus fabric into fashionable bags.
These women and their company have gained a ton of recognition (they were named to the Forbes 30 under 30 this year) and numerous accolades for their ingenuity.
Key takeaway: They acted on an idea.
Julia Hartz
Co-Founder of Eventbrite and a mom of two, Julia worked as a TV exec with productions such as The Shield and Rescue Me when she noticed that people needed a way to sell tickets to their own events. While pregnant with her first child, she and her husband Kevin Hartz decided to launch Eventbrite—which has now sold tickets for over three million events with revenue of $350 million.
They worked side by side in cramped quarters, Julia focusing on operations and the customer experience while Kevin worked on the product.
Julia told the LA Times, “What I learned in those first six months is that this was opening up a part of me that had always been there. It was part of the reason that I didn’t love school, because I love to learn by doing,” she said. “We never sat around and theorized. We just started building.”
I personally relate to her story, as my husband Phillip and I co-founded webMethods in our basement, which we grew from a startup to $200+ million in revenue and 1,100 team members worldwide.
Key takeaway: Learning by doing is one of the best ways to reinvent your life.
J.K. Rowling
J.K. Rowling
Author of the Harry Potter Series, Rowling’s story is a legend: she was a single mom, and wrote Harry Potter in longhand on tablets while sitting at cafés as her baby slept in her stroller.
What most people may not realize is that she began the book in 1990 (after the idea came to her in full form on a four-hour train ride). By 1993, she had only written the first three chapters of what would become Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.
In the interim, life happened: she had married, had an infant daughter, and divorced. She was depressed and had to go on welfare. She finally finished the book in 1995 and, after several publishers rejected it, it was published in 1997. The rest is history.
In her Harvard Commencement address, Rowling said, “Failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged.”
Each of us has the capacity to reinvent our lives. From these five inspirational women, we have learned that the first step is often to listen to our inner voice and then test out and act on our ideas.
About the Author
Caren Merrick is Founder and CEO of Pocket Mentor, a mobile app and digital publishing company based out of McLean, VA focused on leadership development and career advancement. She also co-founded webMethods, which was acquired by Software AG for $540 million. Caren is an investor and speaker and serves on several NASDAQ company boards. In her free time, she loves to sail and travel with her husband and two sons.