Quitting the "Corporate Heroin": A 30-Year Wall Street Veteran Finds His Superpower

About this episode

Joel Hempel shares his journey from a successful Wall Street career to finding his true calling in wilderness expeditions.

What happens when a 28-year Wall Street career ends in a two-week exit, your parents pass within five months of each other, and your second marriage ends — all in the same season of life? In this episode of The Midlife Remix, Steven Miyao sits down with Joel Hempel, founder of Fernweh Guided Expeditions, who spent 30+ years in financial services helping grow a firm from $200 million to over $22 billion. After what Joel calls "the disruption," he made the radical choice not to run back into the fire of finance. Instead, he built a business taking small groups of strangers into wild places — the Adirondacks, the Black Rock Desert, the backcountry — where real conversations happen around the campfire, not the conference room table. This is a conversation about what it costs to play a role you didn't write, the faith it takes to walk away, the difference between what you're good at and your actual superpower, and Joel's hard-earned acronym for navigating the unknown: IAWO — It All Works Out. If you're standing at the edge of your own midlife transition — or thinking about one — this one's for you. Learn more about Joel's work: https://fernwehguidedexpeditions.com/ Chapters &amp…

People in this episode

Host: Steven Miyao

Guest: Joel Hempel

Topics covered

• midlife transition
• career change
• personal growth
• self-discovery
• wilderness experiences

Keywords

• Wall Street
• career change
• superpower
• midlife
• wilderness
• personal growth
• disruption

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Fernweh Guided Expeditions

Places: Adirondacks, Black Rock Desert, backcountry

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