For a long time, I genuinely thought there was something fundamentally wrong with the way my career unfolded.

Not publicly, because outwardly I could explain each move well enough, but privately there was always this lingering sense that everyone else seemed to be building toward something while I appeared to be wandering through unrelated worlds collecting disconnected experiences that did not amount to a coherent professional identity.

I moved through various departments at WASA first, including Transport, Cheque Staff, Accounts and eventually Personnel where I became involved in a significant HR initiative. After that came the lab work in chemical and wastewater analysis.

From there I ended up selling corrugated packaging, then print, then home study programmes. Somewhere along the way customer service became fascinating to me, then sales, then marketing, then copywriting, then organizational behaviour and psychology and MCODE and eventually the development of my own frameworks around alignment, diagnostics, leadership, client retention and human systems.

At various points I probably looked unfocused to people trying to understand my trajectory through the lens of a conventional career path because conventional careers are usually expected to move vertically and mine kept moving laterally, circling around industries and functions that did not appear connected on the surface.

What I understand now, and only now in hindsight, is that there was a thread running through all of it even when I could not see it clearly myself.

I was studying systems. Different kinds of systems, yes, but systems nonetheless. Chemical systems. Operational systems. Human systems. Communication systems. Customer systems. Decision-making systems. Trust systems. Referral systems. Motivation systems. The industries changed but the underlying curiosity did not. I kept trying to understand why some things flowed efficiently while others broke down under pressure, why some environments produced clarity and cooperation while others created confusion, resistance and friction.

Reading Range by David Epstein reframed a great deal of this for me because he challenges the assumption that early specialization is always superior, particularly in what he calls “wicked” environments where variables are constantly shifting and where human behaviour introduces unpredictability that cannot be solved through repetition alone.

In stable environments with fixed rules, specialization has obvious advantages. Chess is one of the examples often used because the rules remain consistent and mastery comes through concentrated repetition over time. But business does not function like chess, at least not once people become involved in any meaningful way, because people are not static variables moving according to fixed rules and neither are customers, teams, leaders or markets.

What becomes difficult in organizations is that many operational models are still designed as though people should behave with the consistency of machinery.

Businesses search for formulas, frameworks, scripts, best practices and universal solutions because predictability feels safer and easier to scale, but the moment human beings enter the equation, complexity enters with them.

• The highest-performing employee may require a completely different leadership approach from someone equally valuable in another department.
• A customer who responds beautifully to one communication style may disengage entirely from another.
• Two businesses in the same industry with similar products can produce wildly different outcomes because the emotional climate, decision-making structures, communication patterns and leadership dynamics underneath the visible business are different.

I think this is part of why I became increasingly drawn toward organizational behaviour and psychology after spending years in sales and customer-facing roles, because eventually you begin to realize that very little in business is actually about the visible thing itself.

• A complaint is rarely just a complaint.
• A stalled team is rarely just a productivity issue.
• High turnover is rarely just recruitment failure. Declining referrals are rarely just a marketing problem.

The visible symptom and the underlying dynamic are often two very different things and understanding that requires range. It requires enough exposure to different systems, personalities, industries and patterns that you begin recognizing interaction effects instead of isolated incidents.

Looking back now, even the transitions that once embarrassed me slightly make more sense than they did while I was living them.

1. Corrugated packaging does not seem connected to organizational diagnostics until you realize packaging is also about communication, perception and behaviour.
2. Customer service teaches emotional regulation, pattern recognition and human expectation management at a level many executives never experience directly because they are too far removed from the frontline.
3. Sales forces you to understand resistance, trust, timing and decision-making under uncertainty.
4. Copywriting sharpens observation because language reveals motive constantly if you pay close enough attention.

I do not think careers like this feel coherent while they are unfolding. They probably cannot. Most people only understand the architecture of their own path retrospectively, once enough distance exists to see the patterns connecting experiences that once appeared random.

At the time, it mostly feels like movement without certainty, especially when the world rewards specialization so aggressively and treats nonlinear development as confusion rather than exploration.

What interests me now is how many people may currently believe they are behind because their path does not look linear enough, when in reality they may still be inside the sampling period that will eventually become the foundation of the work they are uniquely capable of doing later on.

Strategic Reflection Prompt:

What parts of your own path have you dismissed as detours, inconsistencies or evidence that you were falling behind… without considering whether those experiences may actually be expanding your ability to see patterns, people and problems in ways a narrower path never could?

About Giselle

I’m Giselle Hudson, a Pre-Decision Diagnostic Advisor. I work with leaders when something feels off — where results, decisions, or team response don’t match what was expected. I examine what’s shaping outcomes beneath the surface, so the next move is grounded, not reactive.

If this feels familiar, don’t rush your next decision. We can look at your situation properly before you take action.