Do you long to reinvent your work, but hesitate to turn your life upside down? Try taking a page from author and Web entrepreneur Aliza Pilar Sherman, who could be the poster girl for successful career change. Still in her early thirties, Sherman has pursued seven different career moves since college. As an e-business and Internet marketing expert, she has been profiled numerous times in the media, including People, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, US News And World Report, "CBS This Morning" and CNN.

How did Sherman's first career choice as a waitress propel her onto Newsweek's list of the "Top 50 People Who Matter Most on the Internet"? Sherman decided to take control of change back in 1994 after life handed her a U-turn: she and a girlfriend were kidnapped at gunpoint.

To regroup, she left New York City for Santa Fe, where she embarked on a new adventure -- via community education. "Never in my life did I think taking a one-hour, $10 class in HTML would lead to a successful business," Sherman relates. Her newfound talent for building Web sites inspired her to return to the East coast and launch the first woman-owned full-service Internet consulting firm, NYC-based Cybergrrl, Inc.

"People are taught to plug away at one job, one career," Sherman says, but she took the road less traveled. The author of three business books, including "Power Tools for Women in Business: 10 Ways to Succeed in Life and Work" (Entrepreneur Press, 2001), Sherman had an eclectic mix of jobs - from waitress to secretary, then working in the music business and running a non-profit - before she parlayed her hobby of "going on-line" into a new career.

After she sold Cybergrrl to her business partner in 1999, she moved into full-time freelance writing. Sherman is currently doing marketing for the Wyoming Business Council in Cheyenne, and writing her fourth book in her spare time.

"The common thread in all of my jobs were that they focused around public relations and marketing," says Sherman, who'd stressed developing and honing her communications skills, especially writing, public speaking and using the Internet. "I made each change with a conscious decision to challenge myself or improve my earning capacity."

Sherman points out that if you want to remain viable in today's market, you must keep sharpening skills and developing new ones, particularly as the technology skillset keeps growing and changing. "The last thing any of us wants to become is obsolete."
So she believes learning and continuing education, whether it's for entertainment or business, is crucial for building your confidence right along with your expertise.

"I can't read an instruction manual to save my life, but a class and some hands-on is all I need to develop a new skill," says Sherman. Challenging yourself is the key, she adds. "The greatest byproduct of learning something new is the incredible sense of pride and accomplishment you get from knowing you did it."
Sherman notes that online classes make it even easier to further your education. Doing research for a recent freelance assignment, she discovered the wealth of on-line courses available, from graduate programs to herbal medicine, and became sold on using the Internet for learning. She's even looking into getting her MBA online.

"The Internet can never replace face-to-face interaction," she says, "but the benefits of being able to take classes online and in harmony with your own schedule far outweigh the lack of social contact in a classroom setting."

Updating your skills and your education means getting it down on paper. While Sherman says there's an art to writing a resume, it helps to take an "out-of-the-box" approach. "You need to find the common thread among all of your jobs or careers, and emphasize the skills that translate well across all jobs. You should never apologize for the changes, unless you made them rashly. You should look at your well-rounded experiences as assets."

One project of Sherman's that began as a learning experience but turned into a major career benefit was Webgrrls International, the online networking organization she founded in 1995. In a matter of months, it went from a brunch meeting of five in NYC to 100 chapters around the world. Webgrrls activities have brought together nearly 30,000 women, both on- and offline.

"Anyone can benefit from networking online, whether they participate in discussion groups on the Web or via e-mail or whether they use e-mail to follow up with someone they met at a 'real world' event," says Sherman.

She attributes much of her own success as an Internet entrepreneur to the "incredible connections" she made online, as well as what she calls the "richness of the Web."

"I found I could generate business out of my creativity - and everything fell into place," Sherman says. "I'm not just a writer, not just a speaker, not just a Web publisher, and the Web lets me do that."

But while she's the first to admit that going on-line and being tech-savvy creates almost limitless opportunities, she believes the Internet is just a subset of the tools we need to develop and use to attain our goals.

"We should use it like a tool, to build, learn, grow, connect, organize, communicate, buy and sell," Sherman says. "We don't need to be techies to get the most out of the Internet - just realize that with technology, we can improve what we do, both at work and at play. We can be more productive, more creative, more connected.

"Technology can increase the efficiency of your work or help you gain new skills that make you more valuable in the workplace. But I also feel that you should be looking at other tools you can use to create the working environment you want, to be doing the work you really love," she says.

Sherman suggests that once you start taking charge of change and finding new ways to learn, strategies like nurturing your network, creating a personal mission statement, and even mapping out a "business plan" for your life are more ways you can boost your career and fulfill your academic and professional aspirations.

And despite all the online "riches" out there, Sherman says that engaging your own inner resources is the most essential "tool" for enhancing your worklife.

"I try not to talk about achieving balance in our lives, but rather harmony, meaning that what we do at the office should be in harmony with what we want out of life," Sherman says. With all the time we spend at work, we need to make sure we bring our life values and goals to the workplace. "And if harmony isn't there, make a change."