In Liminal Space: Reinventing Yourself After Success, Setbacks, and Industry Change
There was a time when I was an Ironman All-World Athlete, ranked eighth globally in my age group. There were times when I served as a Senior Executive at various large entertainment company, responsible for delivering billions of dollars a year in products.
And there have been times in between, and after, where none of those identities applied.
Most people reading this have lived some version of that arc. Big wins. Hard losses. Long stretches of momentum, followed by moments where the ground shifts underneath you. Those moments are liminal spaces. The in-between.
Sometimes they come from our own choices. Sometimes they come from forces far outside our control, market cycles, layoffs, company resets, industry-wide contractions. Many of my friends and former colleagues in games and tech are living this right now. It can feel disorienting. Even frightening. But liminal space is also where reinvention happens.
We’ve seen it over and over:
Steve Jobs being fired from Apple, only to return and build the most valuable company in the world.
Oprah Winfrey dismissed early in her career, then redefining global media and influence.
Reed Hastings pivoting from a failed DVD-by-mail bet into a category-defining streaming giant.
Satya Nadella stepping into a struggling Microsoft and leading one of the most profound cultural and business transformations in tech.
The pattern is consistent. The pause comes before the rise. Liminal space is an invitation:
To slow down enough to breathe.
To take inventory of what truly matters now, not what mattered ten years ago.
To release identities that no longer fit.
To design a plan that is coherent with your values, your energy, and the life you actually want to live.
This is not about hustling harder. It’s about aligning deeper.
If you are in one of these moments, I encourage you to resist the urge to rush. Reflection is not stagnation. It is preparation.
And when clarity comes, move deliberately. Small, aligned actions compound faster than frantic ones.
I work as an executive coach with leaders who are navigating exactly this kind of transition. People who have been successful, who are capable, and who are standing at the threshold of what comes next.
If you’re in a liminal space right now, you’re not broken. You’re not behind. You may be closer to reinvention than you realize.
Pause. Breathe. Reflect. Then build forward, on purpose.