For the past few weeks we’ve been celebrating the accomplishments of women who changed careers in mid-life and saw some of their greatest successes in their second career. Women like Phyllis Diller, Toni Morrison, and Julia Child. But, famous women aren’t the only ones who can declare that “it’s not too late.” The rest of us can take a risk and follow our dreams, too. My friend Michelle Jezycki is one such woman.
I first met Michelle Jezycki nearly 25 years ago. I was running a small nonprofit agency and Michelle was a truant officer with the Washoe County school district, in Reno Nevada. But truant officer is only one of the many hats Michelle has worn over the years. Since I have known her she has been an entrepreneur, a coach, an accomplished athlete, non-profit organizer, and captain of a 73-foot boat!
Her “it’s not too late” story starts at the age of 40 when she decided to leave her job as Director of Human Resources for the United States Senate to see if she could make a living doing what she loves.
What did she do? First, Michelle created Tri the World Travel (TTW), a full-service travel agency specializing in endurance sports travel. Through TTW, Michelle has partnered with 90 events worldwide, including endurance races, camps and cycling events. Over the years, she has also helped many women do their first 5k, 10k, half marathon or sprint triathlon.
But, athletics isn’t her only passion. Michelle has always demonstrated a commitment to encouraging and building people up. Which prompted her to seize ANOTHER opportunity – a new endeavor called Humankind. Be Both. Her new company is based in Incline Village, Nevada, and was a response to all the carnage she was witnessing in our national political dialogue over the last year. The company has spawned a movement highlighting Kindness in our daily endeavors. (Novel idea, right? Kindness! Go figure.) Michelle simply saw a void in our culture and moved to respond to it.
Her first effort with HumanKind. Be Both. was highlighting the “Feed and Read Program” in Yola, Nigeria. This program provides one hot meal every day to homeless children in NE Nigeria and provides them with reading lessons three times a week. The program originated from the American University of Nigeria and has employed a single mother to prepare the daily meals while tutors, educators and AUN students are providing the reading lessons to these children. And, her messages are spreading — you can currently see her bumper stickers and other gear popping up around the country. Evidently, kindness inspires!
How many times in life do we get an opportunity to practice being uncomfortable? To know we have the resources to succeed but it will require commitment. —Michelle Jezycki
Michelle truly demonstrates that “it’s never too late” to go after your passions. Famous or not, we can all take steps towards pursuing the things we love. How have the stories this month inspired you? Do you have a dream or passion that you’d like to explore? How can you turn it from a latent idea into a reality? Let us know if we can help… because these kinds of stories get us pretty fired up!
p.s. – My book, The Changemaker Ripple Effect, tells more of Michelle’s story and the stories of inspirational changemakers just like her. You can find it here.
