Jeannie Sullivan: Learning Bio

This I know for sure: I am always learning.

Preschool: After my first day of kindergarten, I tell my mom “I think we’ll try this again next year.” And it worked! Lesson: I have a powerful voice.

Elementary School: I win the “Color the Cow” contest at the local Western Sizzlin’. Oh yeah, free burger and fries. Lesson: Perhaps there really is an artist inside each of us. (And my love for cheeseburgers was solidified.)

Middle School: At the awards ceremony, I am the recipient of the typing award. That’s it. Academic genius, huh? Lesson: Oh well, maybe it is not a bad idea to have a skill to fall back on.

High School: A driver’s license, a $1,000 Volkswagen Rabbit, and a series of retail jobs turned me into a freedom junkie. Lesson: Don’t box me in.

College: On the student loan program I quickly realized it cost the same amount of money to take 12 hours as 21 hours. Lesson: That’s how I learned the true meaning of a bargain! I got my degree in just three years.

First Salaried Job: Eight years after I won that typing award, I was putting it to good use typing mailing labels at a bank and “getting coffee” for the old, white man in the corner office who referred to me as Honey. A last-minute no-show at the graduate program I’d applied to offered me an exit strategy. Lesson: Sometimes things do work out, unexpectedly. Go with it.

Career Launchpad: One year into my grad program, I took an internship at NCR Corporation creating a course on technical writing, but it was the psychology of change that hooked me. Lesson: I love the complex challenge of inspiring adults to learn something new!

Professional Passion: From software to health insurance, banking to pharmaceuticals, I dove into my work an instructional designer. Lesson: I could figure out how to teach almost anything; the key is getting inside the mind of the learner.

Hardest, Most Valuable Assignment: In 2003, I woke up into the discovery of myself.  Lesson: There is no step-by-step process for self-discovery, but once you begin, you’ll find pieces of yourself around every corner.

An Awakening: After a long and wonderful career in corporate America, I could no longer contain my entrepreneurial spirit and surprised myself when I heard that same voice I had claimed at age 3, “I don’t believe I want to work here anymore.” Lesson: The truth always comes out.

Second (& Third) Guessing: Though my spirit engaged my entrepreneurial adventures, my logical mind contended that single mom + recession = too much risk. I tried and failed at re-entering the world of employment, twice. Lesson: I’m no longer employable; time to go all-in with my biggest entrepreneurial dreams.

Finding Fearlessness: An adventure-filled trip to Hawaii calls for me to embody courage on a surfboard, a motorcycle, and a mountain peak. Lesson: See the risk and respect it, then go full throttle. 

Today: John Lennon said, “Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.” A synchronicity of events I’ll never completely understand led me to today – this big, beautiful, sky’s the limit, passion-filled day. Lesson: Listen to your intuition, take inspired action, and harbor no regrets. Every lesson learned prepared you to create from this moment.

Want to create your own learning bio? Here’s a quick template with some questions to get you started. Let me know how it goes :)