LIFT with Low to Grow
Should I stay or should I go (now)?
A 5-minute Low to Grow recap for when you want a lift: 3 lessons you can apply today, the messy truth behind success, and my personal takeaway to enrich my life.
Why this is worth your 5 minutes
If you don’t have 40 minutes to listen to the full episode, here’s your high-impact breakdown of my conversation with Lily Elsner, Oxford MBA and Co-founder/CEO of Jack Fertility, the world’s first high-street male fertility testing company.
This one’s for anyone in their 20s or 30s who feels behind, unsure, or quietly terrified they’ve chosen the wrong path. Lily’s story is a masterclass of how you can pivot in your career without losing yourself.
3 Lessons You Can Apply Today
Here are the three most transferable lessons for those who want steady, intentional growth.
1. You Live With Your Choices, No One Else
Lily spent half her life thinking she wanted to become a doctor. But when she finally stepped into the role, something felt deeply off:
“I’d been gunning toward this one goal for half my life… and suddenly realised this role was actually really badly suited to me.”
Walking away from a dream you’ve held for years is painful but staying in the wrong one is worse. It’s like mold that slowly spreads over your life, dimming your enthusiasm. You can be good at something AND still be miserable doing it.
Try this:
Think about the unglamourous things that you’ve now learnt about your current career, how do they affect you?
Would you choose it again knowing what it demands?
2. Your strengths might be hiding in the “wrong” places
After leaving medicine, Lily moved into law, not out of passion, but curiosity. She didn’t expect to thrive… until she did:
“So many things that held me back in science were massive strengths in law… I could just be myself at work.”
Sometimes the environment is the problem, not you.
You won’t discover your strengths by thinking but only by trying. Follow the clues: what feels easy for you but impressive to others?
Try this:
Ask three people who know you well: “What do I do that seems effortless to me, but impressive to you?”
3. Choose the problems you want to complain about
Lily’s favourite philosophy:
“I always say: choose what you want to complain about.”
Every job has problems. Every path has pain. But not all pain is equal.
As a founder, she deals with stress, rejection, funding battles, but now the challenges feel meaningful. They move her forward instead of wearing her down because they are obstacles on a path that she knows she wants to pursue.
Try this:
List your top 3 recurring frustrations. Ask yourself: Are these the kinds of problems I want to be solving for the next 3 years?
If not, it’s a sign you’re climbing the wrong mountain.
The Messy Truth Behind Lily’s Success
Lily’s career looks linear on paper:
medicine → law → MBA → founder
But the truth is the opposite. Her journey is built on unlearning core self-beliefs, walking away from identities people praised her for, and learning to live with an investor world where she admitted:
“I’ve done everything right… and still you realise you’re pitching to a brick wall.”
Her success is not polished. It’s iterative. Rejection-ridden. And beautiful in hindsight, just like real life.
Annie’s Anecdote
Talking to Lily, a fellow female founder from Oxford, reinforced to me the importance of taking action. Clarity comes through motion, not thoughts alone.
I think back to how I normally jump into action after reading ~30% of a manual. I like learning by iterating. For me, I believe that growth comes through small experiments, honest pivots. It comes from the courage to say, “this no longer fits”, and walking away.
If you’re looking for a sign to redesign your career or choose a new life path, let Lily’s story be it. You can listen to our full conversation with Lily Elsner on Low to Grow, available wherever you get your podcasts.
If all you manage today is this article, I hope you walk away feeling seen, and reminded that you’re not alone, you have Low to Grow.
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ChatGPT drafted the first copy of this article before I came in to edit. If ChatGPT was my intern, my feedback would be: good key points from the episode, I actually went through some internal changes reading this draft.