I'm Ariel Wilkins and this is Coaching Real Leaders, part of the HBR Podcast Network.

I'm a longtime executive coach who works with highly successful leaders who've hit a bump in the road.

My job is to help them get over that bump by clarifying their goals and figuring out a way to reach them

so that hopefully they can lead with a little more ease.

I typically work with clients over the course of several months,

but on this show, we have a one-time coaching meeting

focusing on a specific leadership challenge they're facing.

Today's guest is someone will call Kurt to protect his confidentiality.

He's taken a non-traditional career path by pursuing his college degree later in life.

So I started undergrad at 30 as an experiment. I think at 30 years old,

you're pretty well-rounded in the sense that you have a good sense for yourself. And I just never,

I don't know, I think maybe because I didn't grow up with a lot of family members that have advanced degrees. Education was never really a focal point. Income was a focal point, but not education.

And I was also riddled with anxiety. The thought of being in a classroom and somebody calling on me

was very scary. So I think by labeling it an experiment, it allowed me the space to fail. I went in

with the assumption that I would do well,

but left myself the doorway with which to escape if needed if it wasn't going well.

That experiment went well for Kurt and opened him up to other career possibilities.

I just kind of threw the doors off of what I wanted and just started really focusing on what I could do.

So when I started thinking about a career path, I was like, well, if I could do anything, what is it that I would want to do?

I really strongly considered the MBA path and, you know, kind of being a little bit more of that

entrepreneurial mindset but I'm also extremely risk-averse and so recognizing

that myself I always also thinking well maybe law school is a good idea so I

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