It’s a question I’ve been getting a lot lately from people wondering about the recent seismic shifts in my life. (In fact, I often ask myself the same thing). There’s a line from my favorite movie, The Princess Bride, that aptly depicts what it’s like when I try to formulate an answer:
“Let me explain… [pauses while thinking]… No, there is too much. Let me sum up.”
Inigo Montoya
The short answer is: I’m taking a one-year hiatus from my job to pursue a Master of Management in International Arts Management (MMIAM) degree from some of the world’s finest graduate schools that will take me around the globe to study how arts are managed.
The long answer? Well, that’s a bit of a story…
Six years ago, I transitioned my career from college admissions into executive recruitment. I joined a top-ranked retained executive search firm whose global headquarters is in Chicago, where I was living at the time (more that past progressive tense later). The following year, I started working on some CEO searches for arts organizations with the firm’s Global Head of the Nonprofit Practice, James Abruzzo (look him up, he’s an amazing guy). I now refer to that life event as my “lightbulb” moment – as if a lightbulb clicked on above my head – when I discovered a way to apply the skills I had been developing as a professional to a field I’ve always loved (art and culture) and make a longterm career out of it!
I reached out to James later that year and asked if we could formalize a designated work relationship, where he would intentionally mentor me and provide me professional development opportunities and, in exchange, I would be his exclusively dedicated associate, helping run his practice and basically doing anything he asked me to do. It fills me with great joy to say that this person, and this relationship, have had an indelibly positive impact on my life.
Working with and for James has been like a dream come true. I’ve learned so much from him and have grown leaps and bounds under his tutelage. We’ve achieved tremendous success together, we’ve become genuine friends even outside of work, and the work itself is so fun and interesting. Some highlights for me are the searches for the Artistic Director of the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Chief Operating Officer of the Apollo Theater, the Executive Director of the Miami City Ballet (and subsequently their entire senior leadership team), even some searches outside of the arts – right now I’m managing the search for the next President and CEO of the Columbus Zoo & Aquarium!
So, if you love your job so much and everything is going well, why step away? Well, a confluence of factors started converging for me in late 2019: 1) I’ve always been a lifelong learner who aspires to continually grow and develop in whatever I do; 2) Although I have a solid base understanding of the functions that comprise nonprofit management, I realized I could better serve my clients and the candidates I recruit if I had more sophisticated level of comprehension – something I could acquire through a graduate degree; 3) I started becoming curious about someday transitioning my career into working within the arts and I figured if I ever decide in the future to make that pivot, a graduate degree in the field would ease that transition; and 4) an unexpected change in my personal life created an opportunity to “reshuffle the deck” – so to speak – and catalyzed my desire to more actively pursue new dreams and ambitions.
I spoke to James about these things and, as always, he graciously and generously offered me sage counsel. He said, “I’d love to hang on to you forever, Phil, but I agree with your reasoning and I think grad school is a great way to achieve the growth you seek. In fact, I know of several excellent graduate programs in arts management and I’d be happy to refer you to any of them.”
After listening to James’ recommendations and conducting my own due diligence, the program that resonated with me the most was MMIAM, a partnership between SMU Meadows School of the Arts, HEC Montréal, and SDA Bocconi School of Management, where students spend a semester on each campus in Dallas, Montréal, and Milan, with short trips to Bogotá, Mumbai, New Delhi, and Beijing in between. Why MMIAM? Well, I liked the fact that it was only a one-year time commitment. But I loved the international emphasis. As someone who’s traveled very little outside the United States, this was a very attractive value-add not offered in the other programs.
So, in early 2020, with James’ blessing, I applied and was admitted into the program. But, as they say, “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” Soon after my admittance, what was at the time a concerning but contained outbreak of a novel coronavirus became a full-fledged pandemic and, as all the borders closed and the future became increasingly uncertain, I realized this was the worst time to try to travel the world. It was a heart-wrenching decision, but rather than abandon my aspirations completely, I deferred my enrollment to the following year and continued my work in the meantime.
Flash forward to 2021. Things are still tense around the world, but with the widespread availability of safe and effective vaccines, I’m feeling hopeful that by the time I’d do my international travel (January 2022, since Fall 2021 is in Dallas), the world will be much more opened up. I officially enrolled in MMIAM in February, and ever since, I’ve been shifting my life around in preparation for my journey’s commencement on August 14.
Now, to get to that aforementioned past progressive tense… I sold my home! I had been living in Chicago since June 2010 and my most recent home was a condo I bought in the East Lakeview neighborhood in March 2016. I decided I would rather take advantage of the hot seller’s market and avoid landlord responsibilities than rent out my home during a year of global travel. I could tell you the full story of my home sale process, but that would be an entire blog entry in itself.
So I am officially homeless now. A vagrant! A vagabond! But not really homeless, of course. I’m spending these summer months still working remotely, but staying with family in my hometown Grand Rapids, MI. And I have to say that after a year of separation due to the pandemic, and ahead of another year of separation due to my travels, there’s nothing more I want in life right now than to soak up as much time with my family as possible.
But what about next year, Phil? What will you do once you earn your degree? That, my friends, remains the big question, and many of the yet-to-be-written posts in this blog I’m sure will deal with it. I’ll need to find a new place to live (right now I’m considering Chicago, NYC, Miami, or staying abroad). I’ll need to find work (I intend to return to my executive search practice, most likely at my current firm, but I also hope to expand my role and diversify my portfolio of consulting services). But it’s hard to nail down specifics at this point because I know this program is going to expose me to things, and reveal things about myself, that I had never known or considered before and are impossible to predict. And that’s the experience I’m signing up for. I’m holding open the door of possibilities. I’m releasing some things that were sure and certain in my life so that I can embrace whatever new opportunities God has in store for me. And although I don’t know what my life will look like a year from now, I know that by going through this experience with an open mind and heart, whatever life I choose for myself at that time will be chosen with a wisdom and assuredness that I wouldn’t have had otherwise.
And although I don’t know what my life will look like a year from now, I know that by going through this experience with an open mind and heart, whatever life I choose for myself at that time will be chosen with a wisdom and assuredness that I wouldn’t have had otherwise.
Please tell me your thoughts! What advice would you give a first-time world traveler? Have you ever made a big life shift to prepare and open yourself to future opportunities? What did you learn from the experience? Comment below!
My MMIAM Journey 