Getting Fired Is Not the End

The NCAA Football season is about two-thirds of the way complete, and there have been ten coaches fired so far. Three of these coaches are due a collective reported $30 million in buyout money.

Getting fired is not the end. Not even close.

Look at any coach who got fired mid-season — many went on to rebuild, reinvent, and find success in a different context. The firing wasn't a verdict. It was a door closing on one chapter and forcing the opening of another.

I've worked with plenty of people who got fired and treated it like a terminal diagnosis. Like it was proof that they were fundamentally flawed, that their career was over, that no one would trust them with responsibility again. And I've watched others treat the same experience like the most clarifying, redirecting, growth-producing thing that ever happened to them.

Same event. Completely different trajectories. The difference was almost entirely in how they chose to interpret it.

Getting fired can mean you weren't a fit for that particular environment, that culture, that leadership style, or that moment in the company's evolution. That's not the same as not being capable. It's not the same as your best work being behind you.

Some of the most successful careers I know include a firing somewhere in the middle. Not despite it — because of it. Because the forced reset led somewhere better.

If you've been fired, or you're afraid of it: it is not the end. It might be the beginning of something you couldn't have found if you'd stayed.