Daring Tale of Corporate Escape #1: From Spreadsheets to ABCs

Daring Tale of Corporate Escape #1: From Spreadsheets to ABCs

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by Pamela Skillings

An excerpt from Escape from Corporate America: A Practical Guide to Creating the Career of Your Dreams, by Pamela Skillings. Paperback: 352 pages, Ballantine Books, reprinted with permission.

Return to main article Swim in a Smaller Pond.

Name: Alex Kay
Previous occupation: Investment banker
Current occupation: President and COO of Word World, a children's entertainment production company

For more than a decade, Alex Kay was perfectly content with his job as an investment banker. Then, after the stock market crash of 2000, Alex found himself among the ranks of the downsized when the big firm he worked for was purchased by an even bigger one. He decided to take some time off before looking for another Wall Street job. Then September 11 happened.

"That was a big wake-up call for me," Alex remembers. "It made everybody start questioning the real meaning of life and what they were doing, and it made it easier to start looking at alternatives." The idea of leaving investment banking was a daunting one. "Those golden handcuffs are very real," he says. "You kind of build your life around having a certain salary."

While he contemplated his next move, Alex paid the bills by working on deals for a small boutique firm. That's where he was introduced to the founder of Word World, who was trying to raise funding for the company.

Alex was intrigued by the concept behind Word World, an innovative approach to teaching literacy skills through kids' entertainment, and spent three months doing due diligence and working on a business plan.

"I never considered for a moment that I would someday be working for the company, but the more I learned, the more excited I got about Word World and the idea of leaving banking for good," he recalls.

Eventually, Alex joined Word World as the company's third employee. Today, as the firm's executive vice president and producer, he runs all day-to-day operations, managing fifty employees and a production studio.

The company currently produces a television series for PBS featuring the animated characters of Word World, which include a dog cleverly drawn from the letters D-O-G, a sheep in the shape of S-H-E-E-P, and their friends. "What we are trying to do is teach children between the ages of three and five to understand the concept of how letters fit together to form words that represent reallife objects," says Alex. The characters are also licensed for children's books and toys sold at Target and other retailers. At the same time, Word World is working on additional children's entertainment properties with purpose. The government recently awarded the firm's principals grant funding to develop two more literacy projects. "I love the notion that it's not just a business, but also a way to do good by doing well," says Alex.

Although Alex loves working at Word World, there are some additional pressures that come with the job. "In the corporate world, if I didn't do a deal, it didn't really affect the guy in the next office's paycheck," says Alex. "Here I am responsible for fifty people." Every day is a challenge because the business is evolving so quickly, but the effort is worth it. "I am very proud of what we're doing at Word World. I just love it," he says. "The reward is so much more than monetary."

Alex Kay's Best Career Change Advice
"I think people tend to look at the downside and think about what they'll have to give up. But the upside is the ability to actually add value on a daily basis.

"Of course, you want to be smart about it, but it is so worth the risk. If you can just let go, you will find there is a lot more out there."

Return to main article Swim in a Smaller Pond.

Questions about some of the terminology used in this article? Get more information (definitions and links) on key college, career, and job-search terms by going to our Job-Seeker's Glossary of Job-Hunting Terms.

Pamela Skillings is a successful entrepreneur, a certified career coach, and the author of Escape from Corporate America: A Practical Guide to Creating the Career of Your Dreams, a career guide for entrepreneurs and other renegades. For more information, see her Website, Escape from Corporate America.

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