A Wall Street Banker Turned to Comedy for Happiness and a Career Change
It’s one thing to go through life with an itch that you can’t scratch. It’s an entirely different story to go through life with a chronic disease that can’t be cured—or even kept at bay with medical treatment.
In his first week in therapy, Dr. Michael Roesberg couldn’t help but feel depressed about his recent career change.
After working his way up at Goldman Sachs, he had made it through the toughest years of the financial crisis to finally make it as a television personality. Now he was going to change careers again—this time in the comedy world.
But before he could jump from a career he loved to a one he hated, he’d need to get his life back on track. He knew that was never going to happen. It took almost two years of therapy, medication, and the support of a network of like-minded patients to get him back on track. Eventually, he got help through the financial community’s help line, and he started getting some good opportunities. He’s been doing standup comedy for more than eight years now, and he still works at Goldman Sachs.
If you’ve ever felt like you’ve lost yourself in a life of work, you’re not alone. Millions of people grapple with a kind of psychological quicksand that can take over their lives. Some of them are highly intelligent individuals who are drawn to the same career path over and over again. Others may be people who have no interest in their jobs at all and use them as a crutch.
But regardless of why you’re feeling stuck, it’s important to know how to find yourself again. When you’re stuck and can’t get you out, you have to figure out how to get your energy back. I know that feeling all too well. It’s the same itch and the same feeling of being buried by the life you’ve made for yourself.
It’s an itch that I’ve been scratching for a