Today Isn’t Tomorrow #tdn2k

A few months ago, Kellogg declined to accept my application for enrollment into a certificate program to help women become board members. They looked at my simple application and said, “Yeah, no thanks. We don’t want your cash, and we don’t want to teach you how to be an effective board member.”

I was a little upset, but I tried to remember that today isn’t tomorrow. Whenever I hit an obstacle in life — friendships, relationships, family, my career — I try to remember that people do a very poor job of predicting their futures.

What looks like a failure might be an opportunity in disguise.

I also know that I am loaded with career options. It’s fun to be a writer and a speaker, but I want to move from sitting on advisory boards to being appointed to a board of directors. (Here’s the difference.) So I reached out to smart and awesome women in my network and asked for advice and guidance. One of those women, Joni Thomas Doolin, invited me to learn more about her company.

We spent some quality time together, and I learned about TDn2K‘s mission, vision and values. They are a service-focused organization that provides workforce data, sales data, and social data reporting for the restaurant industry — where most jobs are created in America. TDn2K provides information, insight and best practices to their members; however, they host two conferences meant to highlight the best of the best in the worlds of employment, human resources, and marketing.

It’s a great place to work, which is why I am excited to report that I’ve joined the Board of Directors at TDn2K. William Tincup is joining, too. We had our first mini-strategy meeting, the other day, and I did okay for a woman who was rejected by a bunch of other faceless women at Kellogg.

Without that rejection, I wouldn’t have taken matters into my own hands and started owning my career in a new way.

Today is not tomorrow, but today is pretty freakin’ great.