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Write to us at startingpoint@globe.com. To subscribe, sign up here. Bill Belichick’s second career coaching collegiate football is off to a bad start. Since the Patriots coaching legend joined the University of North Carolina this season, UNC has suffered landslide losses, largely empty stadiums, and reports suggesting deep player dissatisfaction. Despite coming tantalizingly close against Virginia last weekend, it hasn’t yet beaten a top opponent under Belichick’s leadership. A six-time Super Bowl winner struggling in his new job might not seem very relatable. But it’s actually pretty common for people making career pivots at any level to run into challenges. “This is a more universal problem than most people realize, because most job changes involve some sort of pivot,” said Kathy Robinson, the founder of CXO Directions, a Boston-based career coaching firm. “I have seen so many times in my career that absolute superstars in one organization go to another organization and suddenly are not.” A career pivot can mean changing jobs, switching companies, gaining new skills, managing more people, or taking on new types of clients. No matter what yours looks like, Belichick’s struggles suggest mistakes to avoid. First, don’t assume that what’s old is new. Past successes — like winning Super Bowls — will get you hired, Robinson says, but won’t necessarily help you do your new job well. Neither will expecting older tactics to work in a new context. Some speculate that Belichick’s struggles owe in part to his famed “do your job” mantra clashing with greener players. Belichick’s pivot — coaching at one level to coaching at another — is typically easier than jumping industries and roles at once. (“That’s like trying to land a double jump at the Olympics,” Robinson said.) But even then, the differences between workplaces can be profound. “In this case, Bill Belichick had to understand a whole new set of competitors, a whole new set of regulations, a whole new team structure, ownership structure, culture,” Robinson said. “It’s not dissimilar from other executives — or anyone, really — who walks into a new job and has to read the room and adjust very quickly.” Belichick isn’t the first famous person to pivot after succeeding elsewhere. Those mid-career shakeups, attempts at brand extension, or second acts sometimes work. See George Foreman, Vera Wang, Martha Stewart, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and more. But other famous pivots have struggled to pay off. Hulk Hogan, the wrestling star who died this year, opened a restaurant called Pastamania in 1995; it folded months later. Mark Wahlberg started a burger chain with his brothers to middling results. Michael Jordan interrupted his NBA career for a lackluster stint in pro baseball. Reality star Heidi Montag’s debut album flopped, and Beyoncé’s fashion line folded. Of course, rocky pivots are sometimes the fault of the place you’re pivoting to. “ I see it all the time that executive teams will sort of pinch themselves — ‘Oh my gosh, we got so and so,’” Robinson said. But sometimes, she added, “the organizations themselves don’t do the work to be able to play at that level.” Belichick, hired to turn around a lackluster program but given few good players to do it, may be experiencing something similar. “You build a culture within a program, eventually the results will come,” he said recently. “When will that happen? Hopefully as soon as possible.” If you’re pivoting, Robinson advises carefully observing your new workplace’s culture, how decisions get made, and how people communicate. And give yourself time; most of us get longer than an NCAA season to make a mark. Belichick has a five-year contract with UNC, but some are already speculating that the university could cut him loose early (it would owe him $20 million if it did so this year). He’s also accomplished enough to have a second second act. Still, Belichick took the job after reportedly struggling to interest other NFL teams after the Pats fired him. And he pivoted at 72, long after most Americans retire. “I feel for him,” Robinson said. “And I also feel for anyone who is looking at this as a potential cautionary tale.” 🧩 8 Across: Frequently | ☔ 59° Showers Living history: In a landmark agreement, the Museum of Fine Arts returned ownership of two ceramic jars made by an enslaved potter to his descendants. The museum then bought back one of the jars, crafted in South Carolina in 1857, to display. Kid you not: Tariffs, inflation, and high day care costs have helped make Massachusetts the most expensive place in the country to have children. For some parents, even a $100,000 salary isn’t enough anymore. Fired: LaMar Cook, a Springfield-based aide to Governor Maura Healey, lost his job after authorities said they’d seized nearly 18 pounds of cocaine slated for delivery to a state building where he worked. Cook, who pleaded not guilty, also faces charges for carrying a gun and driving without a license. Market Basket melee: Two sisters allegedly assaulted employees at a West Bridgewater store who accused them of stealing lobster and steaks. Read all about it: The Massachusetts House unanimously passed a billto overhaul how reading is taught in schools, aiming to reverse a decade-long decline in literacy. Its passage dealt a setback to the state’s largest teachers union, which lobbied to defang the bill. Heated rhetoric: A conservative student journal under investigation at Harvard and a right-wing speaker’s inflammatory words at Boston College are reigniting debates about free speech on campus. Police brutality: A former Lawrence officer shown on video clotheslining a man in custody in 2023 now faces federal charges for assault and for lying about the incident. The officer pleaded not guilty. Cold cases: The hunt has resumed for the person who fatally stabbed Catherine Millican in the New Hampshire woods nearly five decades ago. And in Rhode Island, shoe leather investigating and modern forensics helped identify two killers whose crimes had gone unsolved for years. Lia Smith: Friends and faculty remembered the Middlebury senior who died by suicide this month as a talented athlete and sharp student who wasn’t afraid to speak out about her transgender identity. Even in Vermont, LGBTQ youth have higher suicide rates than their peers. Economic news: The Federal Reserve lowered interest rates for the second month in a row, but stocks fell after Jerome Powell, the Fed chair, cast doubt on another rate cut because inflation remains elevated. (CNBC) And after meeting with China’s leader, President Trump said he’d lower tariffs in return for China exporting rare earth minerals and buying American soybeans. (AP) By David Beard 💃 Combat Zone: No, this battle is not like the bad old days. Today, only two Boston strip clubs remain — and one of them wants to sashay a block away. Chinatown is leery. 🔙 Move it back this weekend: Here’s what happens to your body when the clocks move an hour. (AP) 🇫🇷 Cafe au lait: A Paris vacation inspired this kitchen makeover in Melrose. 📞 On hold: Callers waiting for a human to help with Social Security are reporting much longer call times after Trump’s cuts — and you hear the anguish of some of the most vulnerable members of our society. (WashPost 🎁) 🚶♀️ Hike of a lifetime: Here are 10 of the world’s most beautiful trails. (Time Out) 📖 Under her eye: “The Handmaid’s Tale” novelist Margaret Atwood, witty, wise, and sneakily funny, didn’t want to write a memoir. Thank goodness she did. 🚫 ‘I am banned’: A Nobel Prize winner in literature says the US revoked his visa after he called Trump “Idi Amin in white face.” Nigeria’s Wole Soyinka, 91, said the US consulate told him to bring in his passport so the visa could be canceled in person. (BBC) How is your community planning to help hungry families who will lose SNAP food benefits starting this weekend? Let us know! From reader Deanna Van Schagen: The ”Quincy Point Congregational Church is holding a free community dinner on Nov. 17 at the church, offering eat-in or takeout spaghetti, meatballs, salad, bread, and dessert.” It’s encouraging other churches to follow suit, hoping to provide a meal in the Quincy Point area every week. See: Some of the food pantries serving the Boston area. Thanks for reading Starting Point. This newsletter was edited by David Beard. ❓ Have a question for the team? Email us at startingpoint@globe.com. ✍🏼 If someone sent you this newsletter, you can sign up for your own copy. 📬 Delivered Monday through Friday.
