By Steve Seepersaud
When Bruce Freeman ‘73 talks about pivoting in a career path to create the next opportunity,
those listening can be assured he has lived this journey — more than once, in fact.
Each time Freeman needed to change course, he was able to thrive — not just survive.
Freeman is an adjunct professor at the Stillman School of Business at Seton Hall University in New Jersey and is expanding his work into motivational speaking. He speaks frequently at business events and college campuses.
This is in addition to a career he refers to as being an “entrepreneur by necessity,” a term he borrows from The Wall Street Journal. In 1992, after Freeman was fired from his job as director of operations for the testing lab at PC Magazine, he founded Proline Communications, a public relations and marketing firm.
“I had a wife, a mortgage and a 2-year-old,” Freeman said. “I made the decision to go off on my own because I never wanted to be in a position where my income was totally dependent on just one person.
“When I started my business, I sent announcement cards to 2,500 people in my database. The business was a consultancy in public relations and marketing but really could have been called ‘Anything for a Buck, Inc.’ I shared my business ideas [with a colleague] and he said, ‘You have a lot of great ideas, but you have no goal or objective.’ I said, ‘My goal is to pay the mortgage and my objective is to put three meals on the table.’ That's not what a college career center would tell you, but it's a reality in life.”
Proline Communications focused on marketing for high-tech companies with a client list that included ViewSonic, Brother and TMS Sequoia. When the economy had a massive downturn in 2008, Freeman had to pivot again. He had already been working as an adjunct college instructor and picked up more teaching gigs to partially offset the loss of business at Proline.
In his management classes, Freeman tells students that it’s great to have a Plan A, but your dream career path doesn’t always materialize. Having a Plan B may not be enough either.
“Each semester, I would have my students tell me their Plan A and Plan B,” Freeman said. “Now I’ve added to it, and I ask them for a Plan I. The ‘I’ is for ‘interim.’ If you have to generate an income right now, what would you do?”
Freeman often stresses to his students and people who are relatively new in the workforce to think like an entrepreneur. If someone has good habits and is able to work well on their own — and Freeman acknowledges not everyone is cut out for that — he or she can be much more self-sufficient in the marketplace.
Whether someone follows a Plan A, B or I, it’s important, Freeman says, to find fulfillment in work by aligning it to your passions, interests and values.
“I always say that if you love what you do, you’ll never have to work a day in your life,” Freeman said. “That doesn’t always happen for everyone. Sometimes, you get thrown into a situation where you’re doing something you didn’t plan on, so the best thing is to learn to love what you do.
“Sometimes life throws you lemons so you turn it into lemon meringue pie. I think the one thing I’ve learned along the way is that there are no problems; there are only opportunities. Or, if you prefer, turn adversity into opportunity. There’s nothing more important than perseverance in these uncertain times.”
Learn more about Freeman at BruceFreemanSpeaks.com.
