<p>What happens when the job you thought would carry you to the finish line disappears overnight?</p><p>Two months into what she believed would be her final role, Merry Korn was let go. She was a single parent with two teenagers, college tuition looming, and no clear path forward. The fear was real. The pressure was immediate. Staying in bed was not an option.</p><p>What followed was not an overnight success story. It was a series of hard conversations, informational interviews, small courageous steps, and a refusal to surrender. From those early survival decisions, Merry went on to found and scale a for-profit social enterprise that employed more than 1,300 people across 30 states, prioritizing jobs for people with severe disabilities, disabled veterans, and individuals living in the most impoverished communities.</p><p>Merry shares how to:</p><ul><li>Move forward when fear feels paralyzing</li><li>Use informational interviews as a career and business growth strategy</li><li>Align work with purpose instead of contorting yourself to fit the wrong environment</li><li>Build a mission-driven company that attracts high-quality talent</li><li>Create simple rituals that protect presence at home</li><li>Lead with values when rebuilding after a professional setback</li><li>Turn survival mode into meaningful, scalable impact</li></ul><p><strong>Dig Deeper</strong></p><p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://pinsourcing.com">Pearl Interactive Network</a></p><p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/bergen-belsen">Bergen-Belsen</a></p><p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108052/">Schindler's List</a></p><p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.youtube.com/shorts/oeiO19qaDmQ">Barney</a></p><p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXWCaQPXE_0">Crazy by Patsy Cline</a></p><p><strong>Follow Merry</strong></p><p>On LinkedIn: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/merrykorn">https://www.linkedin.com/in/merrykorn</a></p><p>On X: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://X.com/korn_merry45334">https://X.com/korn_merry45334</a></p><p>On Instagram: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://instagram.com/mpearlkorn">https://instagram.com/mpearlkorn</a></p><p>On Facebook: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://facebook.com/firedtoinspired">https://facebook.com/firedtoinspired</a></p><p>On her website, Fired to Inspired: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://firedtoinspired.com">https://firedtoinspired.com</a></p><p><strong>Follow Gap to Gig</strong></p><p>On Instagram: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="http://instagram.com/gaptogig">instagram.com/gaptogig</a></p><p>On TikTok: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="http://tiktok.com/@gaptogig">tiktok.com/@gaptogig</a></p><p>On X: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="http://x.com/gaptogig">x.com/gaptogig</a></p><p>On YouTube: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="http://youtube.com/@gaptogig-gtg">youtube.com/@gaptogig-gtg</a></p><p>On your podcast player of choice: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://rss.com/podcasts/gaptogig/">https://rss.com/podcasts/gaptogig/</a></p><p>Sign up for the Gap to Gig newsletter: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="http://gaptogig.com">gaptogig.com</a></p><p><strong>Follow Michael</strong></p><p>On LinkedIn: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/themichaeljacobs/">https://www.linkedin.com/in/themichaeljacobs/</a></p>