(Photo by Victoria Will/Invision/AP, File)
Megyn Kelly became a star when she decided to leave a job and pursue a calling. This week the Fox News star announced that she’s jumping from Fox News to NBC, where Kelly will reportedly command one of the highest salaries in television news. Kelly’s career trajectory is an example of what happens when passion meets talent, or what consultant Laura Garnett calls the “zone of genius.”
In high school, Kelly wanted to be a broadcast journalist. As Kelly explains in her book, Settle for More, the dream took a detour for the next 15 years as she pursued a law career instead. Although she had all the trappings of success, the money and prestige wasn’t worth the sacrifice. In 2002, “The chickens came home to roost,” says Kelly. One day, while driving in Chicago with tears streaming down her face, the thought raced through her mind: If I could only break a bone…they’d have to let me rest then. She had worked herself into a frenzy, billing more than 3,000 hours a year, and running herself into the ground with 18-hour days.
Kelly wrote down the following goal: I will be out of law by this time next year. It was a good first step. The world’s highest achievers know the impact of having a vision, and writing it down. “Write down every single idea you have, no matter how big or small,” says Richard Branson. “Write down everything that you’d like to improve in your life. It’s the first step from the invisible to the visible,” says Tony Robbins. Psychology professor Dr. Gail Matthews conducted a study in which she found that more than 70% of the people who wrote down their goals (and reported their progress to a friend) had accomplished them, compared to 35% who kept their goals to themselves and didn’t write them down.
Kelly learned that writing down goals is a great start, but it’s not enough. “The problem with an epiphany is that, no matter how big it is, you can’t necessarily change your life as soon as you have one,” Kelly says. Kelly needed to back up her written goal with action. The trigger occurred late one night. Kelly was watching reruns of Oprah, another woman who left a job she didn’t love (television news) to pursue a calling as a talk-show host. On the program, Oprah had Dr. Phil McGraw as a guest. “The only difference between you and someone you envy is, you settled for less,” McGraw said.
Kelly began to take the steps necessary to achieve her goal—baby steps. With the help of friends, Kelly created a demo tape. She accepted a television news job paying $176 a day, once a week. When she asked the law firm to switch to part-time work, her fellow lawyers were “baffled.” One boss said she’d make partner in a year if she dumped ‘the TV thing.’ According to Kelly, the pitch failed because “I was already gone. I had found my calling.”
Successful leaders often describe their jobs as “a calling.” Jeffrey Immelt, the CEO of GE, once described his job as “more of a calling than a profession.” In a presentation to Stanford business students, Kelly’s muse—Oprah—said, “Everybody has a calling, and your real job in life is to figure out what that is and get about the business of doing it.”
How do you know you’ve found your calling? The late author, Dr. Wayne Dyer, had an intriguing explanation for what a calling feels like: “A vigorous enthusiasm that you feel deep within you that isn’t easy to explain or define. This kind of passion propels you in a direction that seems motivated by a force beyond your control. It’s the inner excitement of being on the right path, doing what feels good to you and what you know you were meant to do.”
The poet Henry David Thoreau once wrote, “If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” It took 15 years for Kelly find the courage to “advance confidently” in a new career direction and to live the life she imagined. Megyn Kelly’s career reminds us that it takes courage to pursue a calling. The path isn’t always a straight one and you’ll meet skeptics and naysayers along the way, but the rewards make the journey well worthwhile.