Who remembers the days of Desperate Housewives on TV? It was one of those shows that gave daytime drama a new primetime feel. It was like “As the World Turns” meets “The Bold and the Beautiful.” One of its stars, Eva Longoria has gone on to do big things including her new project Grand Hotel.

Then there’s the music biz. One of the pioneering rap groups, Boogie Down Productions would fuse dancehall with hip-hop. A group member back then known as D-Nice, is now doing ‘Instagram Live’ parties he calls Club Quarantine. Longoria and D-Nice are also doing their own virtual graduation events.

Of course, who can forget Tamron Hall as a former NBC ‘Today Show’ co-anchor. She left the scene, started a family and now hosts her own talk show. They have turned their career dreams into media ventures and breakout productions. They’ve all had to make a career shift that gave their dreams new lift.

For Longoria, she got to a point of memorizing her lines, taping the show and going home. But it felt as if she was short-changing her full potential. For D-Nice, the changing music landscape made him shift gears. And with Hall, her earlier hopes of having a show were pre-empted by TV Network execs.

There’s lots to learn from them for our own next steps. As high school grads make college decisions and as college grads prepare to enter the workplace, there are a different set of circumstances. Add in the Coronavirus crisis and there is more stress. But the road from here to there, from 0 to 60 is about your:

1. Start

The Desperate Housewives series lasted for about eight years. Longoria became a staple on the show. In a Forbes interview she shared that while she was playing her role on the show, she was also taking notes and learning about showbiz. The show was a start that she has since turned into her own production gig.

2. Stairs

In a line from the poem “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes are the words “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stairs.” That’s what D-Nice and Boogie Down Productions were basically telling/selling in music, based on life in the Bronx, aka the ‘Boogie Down.’ Since then he’s climbed those stairs to new heights.

3. Storm

The storm that today’s generation might best relate to happens on social media. A tweet-storm is when someone just goes off on a rant. But there’s a different kind of storm that can happen in life where it feels like things go off the rails. Hall had her moment in feeling passed-over but she’s handled it with class.

4. Story

No matter the start, the stairs or the storms that come our way, career achievement isn’t simply about our status as much as it is about our story. On social media, your status is kind of a running update. In pop culture, your status might give you more swag. But your story is the difference-maker on the road to glory.

These days, almost err’body’s going through a shift in their environment. Some working from home while others try to restart their livelihoods. The next few months will see new efforts to bounce-back or reboot the game. So, hold on to the memories and godspeed in your journeys when life feels like a hard place.

Tip: The ‘stairs challenge’ on social media might be about how to dance up the stairs as something you do for the culture. But in the workplace, it’s about how to reach new heights in skills and thrills as something you do for the glory.

Talkback: Who remembers the days of Desperate Housewives, Boogie Down Productions and Tamron Hall on the ‘Today Show’?

Tracks: Buju Banton ft John Legend – Memories – https://youtu.be/t9pMjc0-Vlk

H.E.R. – Hard Place – https://youtu.be/zfHbuTG8IHE