From Learning and Experience to Teaching 1989

The Path and  Leap into Higher Education

In the previous pages I outlined the path I followed to move from the "World Traveler Business Executive" to the "College Professor Teaching What I had Experienced." I should mention that there was a great deal of thought that went into this career change. Part of it I suppose was a mid-life crisis and the realization that I did not want to spend the rest of my life travelling around the world buying and selling textile apparel products. It may seem odd to my current students especially those majoring in international business, that I would no longer wish to pursue this type of career. World travel for business has many good and bad points to its credit. It's good because it familiarizes you with many different cultures and ways of doing business at company expense, but there is frequently a price to pay in terms of one's personal life, especially when family responsibilities are involved. In the type of work I did the trips abroad were fairly frequent (3 or 4 times a year) and each trip was usually 3 to 5 weeks in length. When you are abroad there is a good deal of pressure to complete your assignments as quickly as possible because international travel is a sizeable expense for any company. Sometimes there are opportunities to enjoy the tourist sights and experiences but they are usually brief and often repetitive. Travelling to the same international destinations year after year becomes in cases somewhat boring. Whether you are visiting San Francisco or Hong Kong there is only so much to see and do. So for these reasons I began to seriously consider a career change looking for an occupation that was more rewarding.

Planning the Change

There were numerous considerations to ponder. Right after I returned to my education around 1982, I attended a one day seminar that outlined, defined and addressed many of the factors to be considered. This knowledge helped me plan a transition that would take 7 years to complete. I wasn't just moving from one firm to another or even one type of work in the same field. I was changing my whole way of life. I would continue to travel the world, but not as a business person, but as a "tourist" whose sole purpose of travel was enjoyment. However, there was one big obstacle to consider: money. Could I afford to start at the bottom of the compensation curve in a new academic career.