guest blogger Jan Helson - "My Encore Career"

The Global Game Changers will be joining apple seeds once again at our boutique grand (re)opening party this Saturday, September 22nd from 10:00a-4:00p. Author, Jan Helson and co-author & illustrator Rachel Annette Helson will do a book signing, storytime and special Ingite Good! activities with the kids.

MY ENCORE CAREER
By Jan Helson

My recent blog post was titled “REAL SOCIAL CHANGE BEGINS WITH KIDDOS!” I wrote that after my husband and I sold our family business I wanted something more out of my next chapter. I wanted a business venture that was much more deeply seeded in making a positive impact on our world. I wanted my passion for inspiring young children to integrate doing good in their lives to be fully interlaced with my life. So my daughter, Rachel, and I created the children’s brand, The Global Game Changers. We are excited about the way our maxim to Ignite Good! is engaging young children to join the GGC Alliance. They are real-life superheroes! We want them to find their inner superhero powers by using their talents and passions to do good for other people without expecting anything in return.

I am also excited to have the opportunity to expand my horizons in different directions than my professional career took me during my “first act”. I often refer to this time in my life as my “second act” and while I am very much focused on building a successful and meaningful business, I am also committed to insuring that social good is an integral part of my business and its brands. Clearly I am not the first middle age successful woman (or man) who has experienced this epiphany. I have read stories of others. I have talked with others. I recently read an article tweeted by @ArmchrAdvocates titled “More boomers aspire to careers with social purpose”. It explores the concept of an “encore career” with an interesting and refreshing Q & A. I’m not sure that I love the term “encore career” as it implies that it is the end of one’s career, although I guess you can perform as many encores as the audience will stay for, but for right now I prefer to think of The Global Game Changers as my “second act”. Considering that my twenty-three year old daughter, Rachel, the co-author and illustrator of The Global Game Changers children’s storybook is an actress in NYC, the metaphor doesn’t escape me. I am proud that she has captured social good in her first act. Check out the article at http://finance.yahoo.com/news/more-boomers-aspire-careers-social-213113003.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter. I think you will enjoy it, regardless of upon which act your curtain is opening.

I feel privileged to have the opportunity to be on the stage during the second act and hope that I still have an active audience when it is time for my encore.