Telephone Repairman Follows His Dream: Designing Women’s Shoes
At the age of 50, Chris Donovan, who up to that point had worked as a telephone repairman for 30 years, decided to take a second act to reinvent himself to become a women’s shoe designer.
For as long as Chris can remember starting in second grade at high school, he has been sketching and drawing women’s shoes in his school books, bits of paper, even backs of napkins in restaurants that continued for the next 35 years!
At the age of 50, Chris was diagnosed with prostate cancer. This became the turning point and the catalyst for change. As he said, “We only have a certain amount of time here. Do I want to be lying on my death bed saying I’m so glad I played it safe? No, I know I had more in me. I wouldn’t be proud of that. All the things I worked for, the security were ok, but it wasn’t what it could be. I wanted to do more. Something bigger.”
So, after studying at night school, he then took a master degree at a prestigious design school in Florence, Italy. And now Chis has launched his shoe collection. You can see them here.
You can listen to Chris’s full interview With Andy Levine from “second act stories” below.
You are never too old to reinvent yourself, to take a second act
As Chris said; “We only have a certain amount of time here. Do I want to be lying on my death bed saying I’m so glad I played it safe?”
You know, sometimes we don’t know what is holding us back. These hurdles are often with us our entire lives, and it’s not until we spend time identifying them that we can overcome them.
When was the last time you learnt something new? Did something fun? Or just because you could? it’s easy to get caught up in routine, the wash, spin, dry, and repeat of life, being busy for the sake of being busy; we forget to set aside time for ourselves. Time passes, and you can’t get it back -unless you have a Delorean with a flux capacitor from “Back to the Future!”
Suddenly we realise that this isn’t what we intended our life to be, and we want to change. To reinvent our-self. Maybe you have been doing the same job for 10, 20, 30 years and believe you are too set in your ways, and it’s too late…
You are never too late to reinvent your life; I know because I did it at the age of 64. And my oldest client was 76 when he decided to reinvent himself – for the eighth time!
What do you want to be remembered for? What legacy do you want to leave behind? When I asked one of my clients, this his eyes welled up and replied, “I wouldn’t even be missed”. It doesn’t have to be like this.
What would your life be like if you were confident enough to change it? What if you spent your time doing something you were passionate about? What if you were happy?
Every time you take action, you move one step closer to your reinvented life. Together we’ll find out what drives your need for change. Create an action plan to carry you forward to the life you want. And I’m here to help you do that and live the life you want courageously with purpose.
If you’re considering working with me or want to find out more about reinvention coaching and how it could help you, have a chat with me. A 30-minute zoom call to answer your questions. Are you ready to be inspired to take action? Book a time to suit you here.
Book a 30-minute free call with me to see how I can help and support you. If all this call did was inspire you into action would it be worth it? 07421 100646
