January 3, 2024 • 7 mins
From the constraints of a career that never felt right to the liberating pursuit of his true passions, Calvin Schwartz shares how listening to your inner voice can help you find the courage to reinvent yourself. Schwartz shares his transition from an unfulfilling career in pharmacy to finding fulfillment in writing and communication, culminating in an unexpected foray into journalism and teaching. His story is a powerful beacon for anyone who is yearning for change but is hesitant to take the leap. Gain invaluable insights on the importance of self-discovery, reinvention, and practical advice on balancing life transitions on this episode of Search and Replace.
To view full transcript and expanded show notes: https://bit.ly/41AuqgF
To view full transcript and expanded show notes: https://bit.ly/41AuqgF
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Support for the following podcast is providedby the user experience specialist at Johnson Taylor.
More information follows this episode. Whatif you feel a pull to make
a huge change in your life,but you wait ten years just to make
sure it's right. I'm Joe TaylorJunior. This is search and replace.
(00:27):
Sometimes you get a feeling in yourgut and you just know you've got to
follow it right away. If you'reCalvin Schwartz, hearing what his gut was
saying and following through took a littlelonger. I became a pharmacist, and
everything in my world said, don'tbe a pharmacist, because I don't like
science, and I don't like math, and I hate physics, and I'm
(00:51):
not a big fan of chemistry.I loved history. But I had a
very powerful, overbearing mother, andbecause all my relatives were pharmacists, that
said, become a pharmacist. SoI became a pharmacist. There were things
inside me that conflicted with that careerchoice. So I did it for twelve
years. I endured it because itwasn't for me, and then one there
(01:12):
I just woke up and I toldmy poor wife, I said, I
can't do this. Anymore. Butshe said it's your profession. Well what
are you going to do? Isaid, I don't know because I was
just trained for pharmacy. So Isat home for six months watching soap operas
and rocket falls. And we justgot married before house, so it was
really no way to start a marriageor sitting watching soap operas while she's teaching
(01:36):
in New York. Six months onthe couch was about the limit for Calvin's
wife and many of his close friends. Somebody close to me that said,
Calvin, you gotta do something,save your marriage. You got to do
something. Let me get you ajob of selling an eyeglass of all things.
I said, I'm not a salesman. I don't know about eyeglasses.
(01:56):
But it was a matter of survival, and it was a little spark,
this little communicative's fork. I liketalking to people, and eventually I wound
up working for the biggest idware companyin the world called Exaki Group, and
Darren Lynchcraft is Burl and ray Manand I kind of started with them almost
from day one. So I spenttwenty five years there and I loved it.
(02:17):
Took fifty courses and I was trained, and there was still that thing
inside restlessness, and that's something thatwanted to come out. And not that
I wasn't happy doing what I wasdoing because I earned and I was living
and happy, but there was Icouldn't explain it. And that's when Calvin
(02:37):
retired from the eyewear business. Buthe still needed an outlet for all that
restless energy. Now I explained itbecause eventually that inside came out. It
allowed me to write my first novel, of Vishy Water. So when I
wrote that self published, it wastherapy for me and it helped get some
of these emotions, these feelings out, But it was the process of getting
(03:00):
what's inside you out. After Iwrote this book, this novel, I
said to myself, I guess Ican do more writing things now. So
out of the clear blue right underthis of the universe, I decided to
become journalists, which I knew nothingabout. All I knew about journalism,
you got to answer the questions who, what, where I went and why.
Chap became a journalist here in CentralJersey and I get writing for a
(03:23):
couple of magazines and I liked it, and all of a sudden, I
had a cable TV talk show andI was producing and co hosting, and
out of our peak, you werebringing us some national type guests, and
so I was doing that. Andthen they got involved in my alma mater.
And there's no game plan. Evenwith no specific game plan, Calvin
started feeling the pull of something guidinghis decisions about how to spend his time.
(03:46):
These were all expressions of what's insidewhere I should go. And you
always have notions of things you wantto do. You know, you want
to make the world a better place, or you want to give back.
You know, you think about legacy. I want to get back to my
olmah. So I got involved withRutgers. I started mentoring at my peak
before the pandemic. I was mentoringfourteen students a semester, full time,
(04:06):
back and forth to the diner,you know, like three times a week.
And I loved it. Oh,I loved it, and I made
a difference. You can affect change. It's all part of me if you
believe in giving back and doing caring. So here I am at seventy four
becoming a teacher. I was alecturer when most people are retiring, sitting
(04:27):
on a front porch, drinking poonjuice on the rocks and a rocket chair,
and here I am beginning a teachingcareer. I started journalism, writing
for a couple of magazines. Icovered film, independent film, and got
involved with the Cards They Fool Vessel, and then I got involved with homelessness
and hunger because I care. Istarted my own podcast three years ago because
it was COVID and I couldn't domy normal journalism. So you know the
(04:50):
universal and I get some really interestingpeople and it's a giveback. It's a
wonderful fulfillment. It's beyond what Iwhat I've ever dreamt of myself because I'm
supposed to be sitting in that rockingchair. But it is a tremendous fulfillment,
and everything surprises me. I wasn'tputting on this earth to be a
(05:11):
writer. I wasn't trained to bea writer. I wrote that first book.
It was a vehicle for change inmy life. Calvin's got some advice.
If you're thinking about changing something inyour life, do things gradually,
but you still have to hold ontoyour career, your work experiment. Throw
(05:32):
things on a wall, here's yourtime, do less TikTok and do more
searching and do more exploring. Andexperimenting. The message is plan live your
life and it's funny. I wantto be a post boy for RP.
The reinvention point of my life.You know, you can be in your
sixties and seventies and beyond and keepreinventing yourself because you can. You're going
(05:59):
to have seventeen jobs and five careersin your life. It's just statistics.
You've got to go with your innerself. You've got to find that happiness
thing and there are no rules.Be open, got to be brave,
and you've got to be strong,and you have to believe in yourself.
These are all those buzzwords and expressions, but you know it works. I
(06:24):
mean it worked for me that I'mjust a regular guy. That's regular guy
and accomplished writer Calvin Schwartz. We'vegot links to Calvin's projects in our show
notes and on our website at searchand Replace dot show. Search and Replace
(06:46):
was produced by Nicole Hubbard with supportfrom Connie Evans, Amelia Lohman, April
Smith, and Podcast Taxi executive producerLori Taylor. Our theme music was composed
by Alex Rufeire. I'm Joe TaylorJunior. This has been a podcast,
taxi radio production. Support for searchand replaces provided by Johnson Taylor User Experience
(07:13):
specialists serving media and technology companies thatwant their websites to work. Learn more
about how top performing businesses eliminate barriersbetween customers and their goals at www.
Dot Make the website work for medot com
Support for the following podcast is providedby the user experience specialist at Johnson Taylor.
More information follows this episode. Whatif you feel a pull to make
a huge change in your life,but you wait ten years just to make
sure it's right. I'm Joe TaylorJunior. This is search and replace.
(00:27):
Sometimes you get a feeling in yourgut and you just know you've got to
follow it right away. If you'reCalvin Schwartz, hearing what his gut was
saying and following through took a littlelonger. I became a pharmacist, and
everything in my world said, don'tbe a pharmacist, because I don't like
science, and I don't like math, and I hate physics, and I'm
(00:51):
not a big fan of chemistry.I loved history. But I had a
very powerful, overbearing mother, andbecause all my relatives were pharmacists, that
said, become a pharmacist. SoI became a pharmacist. There were things
inside me that conflicted with that careerchoice. So I did it for twelve
years. I endured it because itwasn't for me, and then one there
(01:12):
I just woke up and I toldmy poor wife, I said, I
can't do this. Anymore. Butshe said it's your profession. Well what
are you going to do? Isaid, I don't know because I was
just trained for pharmacy. So Isat home for six months watching soap operas
and rocket falls. And we justgot married before house, so it was
really no way to start a marriageor sitting watching soap operas while she's teaching
(01:36):
in New York. Six months onthe couch was about the limit for Calvin's
wife and many of his close friends. Somebody close to me that said,
Calvin, you gotta do something,save your marriage. You got to do
something. Let me get you ajob of selling an eyeglass of all things.
I said, I'm not a salesman. I don't know about eyeglasses.
(01:56):
But it was a matter of survival, and it was a little spark,
this little communicative's fork. I liketalking to people, and eventually I wound
up working for the biggest idware companyin the world called Exaki Group, and
Darren Lynchcraft is Burl and ray Manand I kind of started with them almost
from day one. So I spenttwenty five years there and I loved it.
(02:17):
Took fifty courses and I was trained, and there was still that thing
inside restlessness, and that's something thatwanted to come out. And not that
I wasn't happy doing what I wasdoing because I earned and I was living
and happy, but there was Icouldn't explain it. And that's when Calvin
(02:37):
retired from the eyewear business. Buthe still needed an outlet for all that
restless energy. Now I explained itbecause eventually that inside came out. It
allowed me to write my first novel, of Vishy Water. So when I
wrote that self published, it wastherapy for me and it helped get some
of these emotions, these feelings out, But it was the process of getting
(03:00):
what's inside you out. After Iwrote this book, this novel, I
said to myself, I guess Ican do more writing things now. So
out of the clear blue right underthis of the universe, I decided to
become journalists, which I knew nothingabout. All I knew about journalism,
you got to answer the questions who, what, where I went and why.
Chap became a journalist here in CentralJersey and I get writing for a
(03:23):
couple of magazines and I liked it, and all of a sudden, I
had a cable TV talk show andI was producing and co hosting, and
out of our peak, you werebringing us some national type guests, and
so I was doing that. Andthen they got involved in my alma mater.
And there's no game plan. Evenwith no specific game plan, Calvin
started feeling the pull of something guidinghis decisions about how to spend his time.
(03:46):
These were all expressions of what's insidewhere I should go. And you
always have notions of things you wantto do. You know, you want
to make the world a better place, or you want to give back.
You know, you think about legacy. I want to get back to my
olmah. So I got involved withRutgers. I started mentoring at my peak
before the pandemic. I was mentoringfourteen students a semester, full time,
(04:06):
back and forth to the diner,you know, like three times a week.
And I loved it. Oh,I loved it, and I made
a difference. You can affect change. It's all part of me if you
believe in giving back and doing caring. So here I am at seventy four
becoming a teacher. I was alecturer when most people are retiring, sitting
(04:27):
on a front porch, drinking poonjuice on the rocks and a rocket chair,
and here I am beginning a teachingcareer. I started journalism, writing
for a couple of magazines. Icovered film, independent film, and got
involved with the Cards They Fool Vessel, and then I got involved with homelessness
and hunger because I care. Istarted my own podcast three years ago because
it was COVID and I couldn't domy normal journalism. So you know the
(04:50):
universal and I get some really interestingpeople and it's a giveback. It's a
wonderful fulfillment. It's beyond what Iwhat I've ever dreamt of myself because I'm
supposed to be sitting in that rockingchair. But it is a tremendous fulfillment,
and everything surprises me. I wasn'tputting on this earth to be a
(05:11):
writer. I wasn't trained to bea writer. I wrote that first book.
It was a vehicle for change inmy life. Calvin's got some advice.
If you're thinking about changing something inyour life, do things gradually,
but you still have to hold ontoyour career, your work experiment. Throw
(05:32):
things on a wall, here's yourtime, do less TikTok and do more
searching and do more exploring. Andexperimenting. The message is plan live your
life and it's funny. I wantto be a post boy for RP.
The reinvention point of my life.You know, you can be in your
sixties and seventies and beyond and keepreinventing yourself because you can. You're going
(05:59):
to have seventeen jobs and five careersin your life. It's just statistics.
You've got to go with your innerself. You've got to find that happiness
thing and there are no rules.Be open, got to be brave,
and you've got to be strong,and you have to believe in yourself.
These are all those buzzwords and expressions, but you know it works. I
(06:24):
mean it worked for me that I'mjust a regular guy. That's regular guy
and accomplished writer Calvin Schwartz. We'vegot links to Calvin's projects in our show
notes and on our website at searchand Replace dot show. Search and Replace
(06:46):
was produced by Nicole Hubbard with supportfrom Connie Evans, Amelia Lohman, April
Smith, and Podcast Taxi executive producerLori Taylor. Our theme music was composed
by Alex Rufeire. I'm Joe TaylorJunior. This has been a podcast,
taxi radio production. Support for searchand replaces provided by Johnson Taylor User Experience
(07:13):
specialists serving media and technology companies thatwant their websites to work. Learn more
about how top performing businesses eliminate barriersbetween customers and their goals at www.
Dot Make the website work for medot com
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