Master the art of new beginnings.
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I had a secret plan to start my life over.
While my ex-husband was terrorizing me and my country was recovering from another war, I was researching MBA programs overseas. I’d take my daughter and disappear—start fresh somewhere clean, somewhere safe, somewhere else. It felt like the only way to truly start over.
Then a friend told me about the opportunity that turned into my position with CBS Group.
It wasn’t the escape I’d been fantasizing about. It meant staying in Georgia, staying in the chaos, building something from scratch in the same place where everything kept falling apart. The practical choice instead of the dream. It was starting over in a different way.
And it opened the door to a completely different life—one I couldn’t have imagined back when I fantasized about running away.
I come from people who know how to start over. My entire country had to do it when the Soviet Union collapsed. My father lost his position as head of a psychiatry department and had to move to Russia to take odd jobs. I gave up my dream of studying abroad when I fell in love with the wrong man and had to find a different path.
But the hardest restart was still ahead: leaving that marriage.
I tried again and again. Each time, I thought I was finally going to escape. I’d make a plan, gather my courage, and take the first steps toward freedom. Once, I even managed to get a divorce! But every time, something pulled me back—his threats, his apologies, my fear, my hope that things would change. I failed at starting over more times than I can count.
Until finally, I didn’t. With friends helping us, my daughter and I made it out for good. We started over with whatever we could carry and whatever support people were willing to give.
That’s when I understood: starting over isn’t something you do once and for all. It’s something you attempt repeatedly, learning a little more each time, until you finally succeed.
When I was planning my escape overseas, I wanted a completely fresh start. New country, new identity, new everything. But real starting over isn’t about erasing your past—it’s about building something different with the foundation you already have. The CBS position let me use everything I’d learned in banking, everything I understood about Georgia’s economy, everything my chaotic life had taught me about resilience. The skill is recognizing which pieces are worth keeping and which need to be rebuilt.
Here’s the critical distinction: escape is about running from something. Reinvention is about building toward something. My escape plan was romantic but nearly impossible—a single mother with no international connections trying to get an MBA abroad while hiding from an abusive ex-husband? A long shot at best. The CBS opportunity was practical, achievable, and right in front of me. One was fear-driven. The other was purpose-driven. Sometimes the best restart isn’t the most dramatic one—it’s the one you can actually execute.
The first time you try to start over, it might not work. The second time might not either. But each attempt teaches you something. You learn what works and what doesn’t. You learn who will help you and what you actually need. You learn that failure isn’t final—it’s practice. My repeated attempts to leave my marriage weren’t failures. They were teaching me the skill of starting over until I finally got it right.
Eleven years later, the “practical choice” I made has become one of the most significant holding companies in Georgia. My daughter is watching her mother build something meaningful. And I learned that sometimes the best way to start over is to stay exactly where you are and become someone different.
You don’t need a clean slate to start over. You just need the courage to keep trying, even when you’ve failed before. Even when the materials you’re working with are messy, complicated, and nothing like what you originally wanted.
That’s not giving up on your dreams. That’s mastering the art of new beginnings—one attempt at a time.
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