HOW I BECAME A COACH continued

The school would be generously sponsored by ‘My Parents Inc.,” with a wall-mounted black chalkboard, every colour of chalk imaginable, and a few sets of those fluorescent magnetic numbers and letters. Within another couple of weeks, the classroom would undergo another change – and it would be a veterinary clinic for my stuffed animals (which meant, yes, at my clinic we even provided services for bears, whales and blue dogs named Barney).

I was in my early teens before I went through the Courtroom phase, the Landscaper & Urban Planner phase, and the Architect phase. Anything and everything was possible in that basement with shag carpet, orange plush chairs, brown sofas, and a vinyl record player.

The ambitious man in me eventually went on to graduate from business school, climb the corporate ladder, and start travelling the world. After all, “Why not?” My role as a brand manager would expand to include more coaching and mentoring work, and it was then that I realized that I wanted to take the next step and enrol in specific coaching training, particularly in the area of personal life coaching. I narrowed down my list to three schools – but then life intervened. Before I could even register for a program, I moved to a new assignment that would have me managing countries like Russia, Estonia, South Africa and Saudi Arabia. It would mean travelling more than 50% of my time to new, culturally-rich places. How could I refuse such an opportunity? MORE