My journey from Numbers to Narratives

As an erstwhile actuarial leader and an Associate Actuary who left that life behind to build her venture so she can power leaders and businesses with #storytelling, I often feel like the proverbial Hero from Campbell's Hero's Journey.

I'll tell you how!

My swerve from a corporate career made of intense Numbers into the slow flow of Narratives was as much inwards, as outwardly visible. Asking myself deeper questions about Why and What for, I left the highway route of an actuarial career to lose and find myself through the power of words, stories and narratives.

The route was neither easy nor straight. More, you couldn't tell where you're going until you almost reached the end of tunnel.

Seventy days of Noble Silence over 7 Vipassana courses paved my path, inwardly.

Outwardly, a number of milestones validated the path is right, and more - right for me: published books, Tedx invites, walk down the red carpet at Cannes, and more.

But a departure makes always a part of you get lost forever - or so I thought.

My bad!

What was surprising, and touching, is that even as I left being an actuarial professional, the profession never quite left me. In fact, the best inspirations I receive now are often from my old professional relationships that stayed, as I traveled through my Hero's Journey.

My old reporting managers, peers, team members and even corporate leaders from other verticals called up, asked how I did, and told me to stay in touch. Not to mention the community and the professional body of the actuaries.

And then, at LIGHTHOUSE some of them are my clients!

Right!

I now get to work with a number of my old folks: my first manager, my old peers, colleagues and other verticals of ex-employers, helping the businesses with the insights I gained only because I went away and then came back.

Last month as I spoke at the coveted mecca for actuaries - the Global Conference of Actuaries - it made me ponder how beautifully my life is carving out its perfect little circle!

I was called upon to talk about how Data Storytelling - a flagship program I run at Lighthouse - can help core Business functions & strategy leaders step up their game for effective and collaborative business decision-making.

I am still on my journey, it feels like only the beginning as yet.

But what I know is that you don't have to leave in order to live another life.

I remember what one of the Actuarial presidents recently told me over a warm conversation - Of course, you are now a Storytelling Actuary!

Amen. :)