4 Celebrities who Drastically Changed their Career (They are Inspiring!)

Celebrities are loved. That’s why they are famous and I have some celebrities that inspire me. Don’t you?

So many times I sit still and just think! I don’t think that’s creepy if you think it is anyway. Since I started blogging, I’ve had a handful of time to sit and try to be creative. I guess that’s what creatives do.

And many times I wonder what it’s like for other people who might have changed careers.

Since changing my career from law to human resources, I’ve also been able to add creative, blogger and writer as some professions of mine. Isn’t that cool?

And I’ve also thought of what it’s felt like for other people who aren’t ‘professionals’ but still have a career they build.

I mean, gone are the days when to claim you had a career you had to be confined to the four walls of an office space. I watch a lot of movies and I sort of like the entertainment industry even though I’m not as obsessed as some other folks.

All the same, I kinda like the entertainment industry and maybe in another life, I might as well become that kind of celebrity (maybe not! who knows?)..but you get the gist.

So today, I decided to honor some of these people, because blogging about the workplace doesn’t have to relate to just a cubicle or an office-type setting. Everybody’s workplace setting could differ.

I’ve also often wondered what it can be like for any of these celebrities to have changed careers and I’ll be sharing my discovery in this post.

No matter your industry, job, or daily work schedule, if there’s a passion out there that you have been wanting to pursue, I hope this post inspires you. Like I always say, I draw inspiration from anywhere these days, as long as it affects my life positively.

So in no particular order, please draw some inspiration from these four celebrities.

1.  Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson

The Rock is certainly one of the most loved celebrities

I’ve always fancied The Rock from an early age. I just liked him and I can’t tell why really. I’ve noticed that everybody seems to love him. Many times, celebrities seem to have a lot of haters which can be sad.

But when you visit his Instagram page, you never seem to find hateful comments. He has to be one of the most loved celebrities. I mean, how can anyone hate The Rock?

He is an American actor, producer, and professional wrestler. I remember watching his fights as a child (I enjoyed watching wrestling growing up).

Please don’t tell me that those wrestling matches are not real. I still won’t believe you. Yeah right!

He started up as a player for the University of Miami football team and briefly a backup linebacker for the Canadian Football League’s Calgary Stampeders. He made a switch and joined the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1996 at 24 years old.

This led him to his fame and he soon after crossed to TV and movies in the early 2000s. If you read more about The Rock and follow his journey, you’d find that things weren’t always rosy for him. He inspires me.

Read more about him here.

2. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Another of my loved celebrities and I absolutely love her novels.

Since I’m very Nigerian, I wanted to put a Nigerian on this list. I have quite a handful of Nigerian readers and this can inspire just about anyone.

This wonderful woman is a writer of novels, short stories, and nonfiction. She studied Medicine and Pharmacy for over a year where she edited a magazine run by the University.

But at the age of 19, she relocated to the United States to study communications and political science at Drexel University in Philadelphia as she had always had a passion for writing.

She later completed a master’s degree in creative writing at Johns Hopkins University and has won several international awards for many of her works.

I first fell in love with Chimamanda after reading her book ‘Purple Hibiscus’ in my literature class. I’ve read most of her other books and I seem to like how she interprets African literature while also relating it to the western world.

I bet that if you’ve never read any of her books, you’d love her writing. And if you know little or nothing about Nigeria or Africa in whole, you’d appreciate it.

Better still, go see the movie: ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’, where her second novel was adapted into a film of the same title. The novel/ movie tells the story of the Nigerian Civil War in a brilliant way using the life of a family.

Read more about her here.

3. Arnold Schwarzenegger

Arnold has got a lot of feathers to his cap!

Arnold is an Austrian-American actor, producer, businessman, investor, author, activist, politician, and former professional bodybuilder. He served two terms as the 38th Governor of California from 2003 to 2011.

Growing up, I remember watching several movies where he starred and I always admired him. I never got the pronunciation of his last name until I had grown much older and had severally been corrected by my folks.

Who remembers The Terminator?

Well, it will interest you to know that at school, Arnold was reportedly academically average and his family had money issues growing up. He started weight training at the age of 15 and chose body building over soccer.

Amidst many reports on his career, it’s just inspiring to know that he has always pursued his goals at every point in his life.

Something that intrigued me the most was when he announced his candidacy in the 2003 California recall election for Governor of California on August 6, 2003.

Let’s not forget that he was an immigrant who had to learn the English language to thrive in a new environment he had dreamt of living in at the age of 10. I certainly can relate.

Read more about him here.

4. Folarin “Falz” Falana

One of the celebrities that many Nigerians love

Another Nigerian that inspires me a whole lot is Falz, as he is fondly called. He is another person that inspires many Nigerians. He is a Nigerian lawyer, rapper, actor, songwriter and I also want to call him a comedian.

I’ll say that he is a comedian because he makes most of us laugh out loud. You should check out his IG handle.

Sometimes, he does some skits that are just plain hilarious and if you aren’t Nigerian you may not quite get the joke since he speaks more of broken English for such skits. We have ‘Pidgin English’ in Nigeria just like Jamaicans have’ Patois’ or ‘Patwa’.

Don’t worry, if you don’t get the jokes, you can buzz me and I’ll be happy to interpret it for you.

He is an alumnus of the University of Reading after graduating with an LLB honors degree in Law and was called to the Nigerian Bar in 2012, just two years before me (haha).

He always had a love for music and pursued this goal. In 2009, he started his professional career in music and currently owns an independent record label called ‘Bahd Guys Records’.

Read more about him here.

I hope these celebs inspire you to change your career if it’s something that you’ve always envisioned. Otherwise, I hope you are inspired to keep pursuing your current goals, whatever it may be. Entertainment or not.

Let me know in the comment section, another celebrity who has changed career and inspires you. Why? Please share below, I love hearing back from you.

If you enjoyed this post, then you should check out my previous celebrity inspired posts here and here. Please share this post using the ‘Share buttons’ above and below.

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