When I worked at the O’Neill Theater Center, one of our mottos was “Risk, Fail, Risk Again”. This especially applied to our student actors, but lately I have been thinking about risk in terms of career trajectories. As an emerging leader in my 20s, so much of my life seemed caught up in the first career choices I made, that it had all the drama of this (awesome) Judy Garland classic.

Feeling trapped in a dead-end job, or not getting the job of your dreams can seem downright tragic when you work for a nonprofit. We’re not just looking for a job. We are looking for our opportunity to Transform Lives Through The Arts. Or Education. Or whatever.

But inevitably, if you are taking risks and  reaching high enough and looking for all of the experiences that emerging leaders should look for, unpredictable and wonderful and disappointing things will happen. Some of my Bay Area peers—Evelyn Orantes, Maia Rosal, Marc Vogl and Ellen Oh—will be sharing their personal experiences at “Career Trajectories—Not All Straight Arrows,” as part of Americans for the Arts’s 2009 Creative Conversations series, presented by the San Francisco Bay Area Emerging Arts Professionals. It is next Tuesday, October 13 at 7pm at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center. It is $6. And, you can register in advance here.

Hope to see you there!