Performance was never the whole story.

For more than 25 years I worked in IT and project management, much of it leading IT teams inside manufacturing plants, with stops at Thomson Consumer Electronics and Imation.

I had the engineering degree, the MBA and a LinkedIn network of about 5,000 people. Then I was laid off. That's when I learned how much of my value I had let a company describe for me.

What I rebuilt became the Transferable Capital framework: six kinds of capital that belong to you, not your employer. Today I teach it to executives, write about it every week in ReTitled, and use it with clients who are ready to own what comes next.

• BS, Electrical Engineering, NC A&T State University
• MBA, Carlson School of Management
• Adjunct faculty, Carlson Executive MBA
• Excellence in Teaching Award, Hamline University
• Author, Laid Off to Lift-Off
• Based in the Washington, DC area