New year, new career

Three members of the Soho House family share how they swapped corporate for creativity to bring more meaning into their day-to-day lives:

Sonya Jackson 

Every House member, Chicago

The former president of the United Airlines Foundation is now a playwright and founding member of the Chicago Ideas speakers’ festival. 

‘For the nine years I worked at United, my corporate life involved planning for worst case scenarios and advising C-Suite executives how best to respond. There are roughly 87,000 flights a day in the US alone and – I don’t want to scare anyone but – more can go wrong than the average traveller might care to know. Bird collisions alone were a daily occurrence. 

‘It was demanding – and rewarding – working on relief missions for disasters such as Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans or Haiti after the earthquakes. They obviously weren’t normal business trips. We’d fly in the middle of the night taking doctors and relief workers, then spend all day evacuating people. By the time we arrived back in Chicago, I’d be rushed off the plane to do TV interviews in time for the evening news. 

‘I loved my corporate life and I feel blessed to have stumbled into it. Once upon a time I was actually a classically trained ballerina. But before I left for college my parents explained to me the way the world worked at that time. They said: “You are an African-American – a brown girl – you can’t study dance because it won’t lead you to a job or a future.” Their advice led me to a 25 year-long career which took me all over the world working for huge companies such as BP, and with amazing CEOs such as John Browne and Tony Hayward. 

‘But it was also a career that left me with huge gaps in my personal and creative life. It all came to a head when a close friend called to tell me she had breast cancer. She wasn’t in a good way and asked me to visit her. I’m not proud of it, but I said I was going to London for a week but that I’d visit her as soon as I got back. As I boarded the plane a week later her daughter called to say that she had passed. I was devastated. It was a turning point in my life. 

‘I left United and started Mantra for Good, an organisation that was founded on the philosophy that “good people can change the world”. Through this work I became a founding board member of Chicago Ideas, the city’s largest speakers’ event, which is attended by more than 30,000 people every year. We have had some incredible speakers in the past, from Bill Clinton and Padma Lakshmi to Michael Strahan and Common.

'More importantly I’m happy, more present, and living a life that challenges me creatively. Some may call me a “high-flyer” and when it came to my corporate career this was quite literally true, but I’d prefer to be known as a blessed dreamer at the end of the day.’ 

Michael J Wong

Every House member, London

The former director at an advertising agency is now a yoga teacher and the founder of the Just Breathe yoga gatherings.

‘I was raised on the beaches of Santa Monica, California, which was pretty incredible. I remember a time when my next door neighbour was Mike Tyson and Arnold Schwarzenegger lived one street over, along with the guy who created The Simpsons. LA life was fast and I think it shaped my focus on success.

‘From an early age, I always tried to stay ahead of the curve. I went to the University of California while interning at Nike, and after graduating I dove head first into LA’s crazy advertising and media landscape – I didn’t stop working for a decade. Fast forward to 2015 and I found myself in London at the top of my professional game as head of creative strategy at an agency helping to run an 80-person team, but I was feeling burnt out and knew something was missing.

‘I was lucky though, I was just 28 at the time and could still make a change, which is exactly what I decided to do. I’d already fallen in love with mindfulness and yoga, so I trained as a teacher in both disciplines. A short time after leaving my corporate life – and partly because of my prior skillset – I turned my passions into a more fulfilling career. Today, my primary focus is Just Breathe, a community organisation that brings meditation and modern mindfulness to real people in the real world. Earlier this year I released my first book, Sit Down, Be Quiet. I wrote it because I wanted to share the philosophy of Just Breathe with as many people as possible.

‘These days I’m grateful to live and breathe the things I’m passionate about. It’s been a long road to get here, but looking back now, I couldn’t imagine the journey ending up any other way. I’m lucky that I get to wake up every day and focus on creating community, connection and quiet.’ 

Koei Lee 

Bar manager, DUMBO House, Brooklyn 

The former pharmaceutical executive now pours his passion into cocktails. 

‘Growing up, I always wanted to be a doctor. I worked hard, I got a degree at UCLA in chemistry and I applied to med schools, but didn’t get in. I started working in a lab making drugs instead and after rising through the ranks I was running my own group in R&D. It wasn’t medicine, but we were helping people. 

‘I was well paid and enjoying my scientific life, but my career was about to change massively. The reason I switched careers is the same reason I live in New York – and it’s a bit of a cliche. My girlfriend moved here and, as a romantic, I followed her. I left everything behind, including my job. 

‘There aren’t many pharmaceutical jobs here and I remember thinking: “Oh no, what have I done?” I knew the career I’d built for myself was over, but it was the best mistake of my life. It challenged me to find a career that made me happy. I’d bartended at college and enjoyed it, so I applied for bar work, thinking: “How hard can it be?” It was actually harder than getting a pharma job. 

‘When I was finally given a chance, I realised my cocktail knowledge wasn’t up to scratch. For the first time ever, I had a drink returned. The guest I’d served it to said it was the worst thing he’d ever drunk. I was humbled and I knew that I had to push myself to improve. 

‘The more I learnt the better I got, and now I’m the bar manager for DUMBO House in Brooklyn. There are definite similarities to my former career: cocktails are increasingly precise and scientific, after all. I like to think I use my chemistry background too, don’t forget I’m still creating chemical reactions – they’re just not quite as dangerous and explosive. 

‘I’m also much happier now that I spend my days meeting new people from around the world. Sure, I could use more sleep but... nah, let’s grab a drink instead.’