How Did I Get HERE? Part I

This is the first of a series in which I will be revisiting the past 10 years and exploring that all-important question: What do I want to do with the rest of my life?

It was the summer of 1996. I had recently left my job covering IPOs for Bloomberg Financial Markets so I could start up my own fitness information web site, FitnessLink. People thought I was crazy, but my husband supported me and I was passionate about what I was doing. How I wish I had some of that passion now.

In 1998 my son was born and a year later FitnessLink was so successful that my husband left his job to partner with me. Maybe I look back with rose-colored glasses, but I remember life being pretty good. Balanced. I had a career that motivated and fulfilled me. My husband and I had terrific synergy. We had a sitter 15-20 hours a week, but we were able to spend lots of time with our son and we still went out alone together a couple times a month. My story was featured in several magazines (read more here, scroll to page 5), I was interviewed on television, and I was a speaker at several fitness conferences.

In the summer of 2000, we were approached by a company that wanted to acquire FitnessLink. We investigated and ultimately accepted their offer of cash and a two-year employment contract with benefits for each of us. Within a year, that company was going out of business. As they say, the “dot com bubble had burst.”

My husband and I were happy we had sold when we did. However, I was left with no job (my husband had kept his public relations business alive all along, so he bounced back quickly). Worse, I was left with no passion.

Over the following year I tried on a few different “careers,” none of which felt right for me. So I made a decision: Being a homeschooling mom would be my career.

Continued here…