[47] From an IT Career to Teaching and Creating Art with Paivi Eerola

Paivi Eerola had spent her entire life studying and working in IT. With a Master’s Degree in Computer Engineering, she spent her first professional years teaching other IT professionals.After a while, she moved to programming and later, to project management of large-scale IT integrations, and then to selling enterprise-level IT solutions. And as if all that wasn’t enough, she also went back to school to acquire a second degree in Industrial Design.But Paivi’s first love was art. Growing up in a small town in eastern Finland, she learned to draw as a child to while away the long quiet days. And although her IT career took off taking her to other directions, she longed to do something creative where she could connect with her rich inner world and imagination. In this episode, Paivi shares how her transition from an IT career back to Art happened.Highlights of Episode 47The real reason why Paivi Eerola went back to school to study Industrial DesignHow blogging—and specifically sharing her early drawings—helped her find and understand her audienceHow her engineering background guided her approach to her artwork and helped her identify a product that became an early source of passive incomeThe surprising lesson she learned about herself from these transitions and why she considers it a giftWhy revisiting a book you liked as a kid can help you reconnect with your imagination and your view of the future Get full access to Shaping Life at loublaser.substack.com/subscribe