A few weeks ago Hannah, my seventeen year-old daughter, announced her self-actualization plan -- that she would give up college just one year in to a two year course.
My wife and I set great store on education and so we were disappointed to say the least.
Hannah compounded our upset by telling us that she has 'always' wanted to be a hairdresser and that was what she planned to do. Always? That was the first we'd heard of it!
We always try to support our children in whatever they decide to do, but to be honest, this was not an easy day for us. All kinds of images of local 'salons', minimum wage, and sweeping floors went through my mind, but I bit my tongue.
My wife and I had long conversations about how we could 'talk her out of it' and how we could persuade her to stay in school for her own happiness.
Hannah, meanwhile, had different plans. Unbeknown to us, she had a strategy. And her strategy didn't involve starting at the bottom and staying there. She had better ambitions than that.
Better ambitions than we had been giving her credit for.
Career happiness requires a commitment to succeed.
She decided that if she wanted a career in hairdressing, the only place to start would be at the top, so she wrote, with her resume (we didn't even know she knew what a resume was!) to every Vidal Sassoon salon in the country, asking about apprenticeships. As a backup. she also wrote to all the other top salons, but Vidal Sassoon was her pinnacle.
Within days she had a letter asking her to attend a group interview in London. We duly accompanied out daughter who dressed herself up like a real young lady (as opposed to the teenager we knew and loved).
The interview went well. At one point, Hannah told us afterwards, the human resources lady held up a sheaf of application letters and said to the group, 'Who is Hannah Avis - she must be keen, I've got eight different letters from her!'
Less than a week later she was offered one of only 20 apprenticeships that Vidal Sassoon are offering this year.
And, we later learned, over 600 people had applied.
She has been 'at work' now for nearly three weeks and yesterday she had her first assessment where she got top marks of the eight apprentices in her salon.
Her mother and I are so proud of her it almost hurts.
The moral of the story? Happiness is not about what others think. Do what you want to do. Be who you want to be. But do it well and be truly who you want to be. In the end, that's what makes you a happy, successful person.
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