Mastering the Art of Personal Transformation
Nary a week goes by during this pandemic when someone doesn’t say some version of the following sentence to me: “We live in Small-waukee.”
To which I’m fond of responding, “Milwaukee is Mayberry.”
Time and time again, we’re reminded how Milwaukee is the world’s largest small town. Even without apps such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, we all seem somehow connected.
So it goes with my friendship with E. Keller “Kelly” Fitzsimmons. We seem to run into each other once or twice a year at a business or social event. Remarkably, every time I see her, when I ask her about what’s new, she always seems to be on the verge of adding a new chapter to the tapestry that is her career.
Fitzsimmons is like an entrepreneurial chameleon. She started six businesses over a 20-year-span.
She was the president and CEO of Sun Tzu Security Ltd. She was the CEO of Neohapsis Inc. She was a co-founder at HarQen Inc. She is a co-founder and managing director at Custom Reality Services.
Along the way, she also was the author of a book titled, “Lost in Startuplandia: Wayfinding for the Weary Entrepreneur.”
“Over the last 25 years, I have been at the birth of three new industries as they were just emerging: information security, voice interface and virtual reality. I am now in a nameless fourth, as it will emerge from the ashes of the music industry. What it will be is anyone's guess,” Fitzsimmons said. “We have to be ready to ask the question: Where do I go from here? Once we ask this question, it is all about listening. We need to be in a place where we can receive wisdom. This is easier said than done. ”
For this week’s column, I asked Fitzsimmons to reflect on her journey of reinvention.
She responded with the following, which she describes as her “Maxims of Personal Transformation.”
Know yourself. “Too often we focus on weakness. Don't start there. Figure out your unique gifts. Without joy as our North Star, we are most likely going to get quite lost,” Fitzsimmons said. “At some point in our lives, we wake up and realize that it is time to move on. Our identity within the realm of material work life no longer suits us. It hangs about us like an ill-fitting suit.”
Nothing in excess. “Once we have a hint at the answer, we may feel a desire to jump in with both feet. This is a time to test hypotheses, not seek resolution,” Fitzsimmons said. “Likely, this wake-up is long overdue. The discomfort has been there for an unreasonably long time, but our coping mechanisms have seen us through. As humans, we only tend to act when the pain of denial becomes excruciating. Until then, we make do and patch things as long as we can, as the fear of the unknown and loss of identity keep us trapped, suffocating even, in our old life.”
Surety brings ruin. “The real trick is to stay in the unknowing and experiment. The idea is to do something new and outside your comfort zone,” Fitzsimmons said. “If you have no clues, interview friends and colleagues and ask them what qualities they see in you and where you could add value. It took my Aunt Miriam decades of saying that I should write a book before I did. Often those who love us most see things we are unable to see.”
E. Keller “Kelly” Fitzsimmons
Title: Co-Founder
Organization: Custom Reality Services, a virtual reality (VR) production company
Expertise: Entrepreneur
Education: Bachelor of Arts, University of Rochester; Master of Theological Studies, Harvard University
Family: Husband, Jeff; and daughters, Brynn and Reiley
Best advice ever received: "Focus, focus, focus. It's the only advantage you have." George Dalton, former CEO and co-founder of Fiserv Inc.
Favorite musical artist: Amanda Palmer and VUCA
Favorite Wisconsin restaurant: Centro Cafe
