My New York Minute
A New York Minute is a very, very short period of time. According to Wikipedia, “The term refers to the common perception that the people in New York City are hurried and impatient.”
I write about this topic to give hope and advice to those who are looking for work. You never know what can happen in a New York, London, Detroit, or anywhere Minute—if you have patience. (And some New Yorkers do have patience!)
One New York Minute occurred on Thursday, August 21, 2008, while I was in my office. When I checked my e-mail, I saw that there was a message from a professor I knew who taught in the Management Department at theZicklin School of Business within Baruch College, part of the City University of New York.
His message read something like, “Respond ASAP” and below his words was a message from one of his colleagues stating the need for an Adjunct Instructor to teach an undergraduate course on “Employee Development and Training” that started the following Thursday.
Without hesitation and maybe not in this order, I replied to my colleague to say, “Thanks,” then contacted his colleague to apply for the job.
This is the subject line of an email I wrote to my business coach a few minutes later, “Name someone you know teaching at Zicklin School of Business.” The body of my message read, “Yes, it’s me…..Just what I was missing from my career. WOW!! Filing out the paperwork on Tuesday, beginning next Thursday evening.”
The rest is history. The first semester went very well and this second class is also going well. Most evenings, I leave class saying to myself, “I love these students.” Teaching is my passion and I have students hungry to benefit from the expertise and experiences I share with them.
“What I was missing from my career” was a platform, a place from which I could transfer the knowledge I had gained developing, teaching, and training adults on how to improve their workplace skills and leadership capabilities to those who could benefit.
Like every “New York Minute” this one was years in the making. While waiting for it to happen, I was patient and involved in other activities.
The professor who sent me the initial email and I met about seven years earlier when I was designing and presenting a “Train-the-Trainer” program for instructors in the Continuing and Professional Studies at Baruch. We kept in touch, I lectured for his classes and taught a leadership module in one of his courses, he recommended me to be the moderator for a panel at Baruch’s “Women in Business” program, etc.
I told you that I was patient. It was a ”New York Minute” in October 1989 that took me on this path. At that time, I was temping at an investment bank with some extremely rude executives who had M.B.A.s I turned the anger I felt into the decision that one day I wanted to train leaders on how to be more effective and respectful.
My company Leadership Training Room evolved out of that New York Minute. And so did being an Adjunct Instructor at the Zicklin School of Business, the nation’s most diverse campus.
Be open and ready for your own New York Minute. And keep staying engaged in what you truly care about so that you can savor that time.