We are taught to think of careers as ladders: start at the bottom, climb steadily upwards and whatever you do, don\u2019t go backwards. 50 Degrees North CEO Mari Rasanen has built hers very differently.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI look at my career more like a horizontal thing,\u201d Rasanen told Travel Weekly<\/em>. \u201cA horizontal thing where I learn different things.\u201d<\/p>\n It is a philosophy that has seen the Finnish-born CEO move between finance, IT, marketing and sales, relocate from Finland to Denmark and then Australia, and repeatedly swap seniority for the chance to learn something new.<\/p>\n In fact, Rasanen estimates she has started again three times in her life.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve kind of started from the scratch like three times, from the bottom, bottom ladder and just like climbing up,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n When she arrived in Australia, Rasanen knew her finance experience could get her another job in the sector \u2014 but also knew it would likely mean going back to basic finance work she had already done.<\/p>\n \u201cI was like, look, I\u2019ve done enough of the basic finance things,\u201d she said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t sparkle anything in me at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n So she changed careers instead.<\/p>\n Having studied IT and enjoyed it as a hobby, Rasanen decided to try it professionally, spending around two-and-a-half years in the industry before reaching another conclusion: \u201cYeah, not for me really.\u201d<\/p>\n Rather than seeing that as time wasted, it became another piece of a career that would eventually make much more sense when viewed backwards.<\/p>\n That willingness to move sideways did not mean Rasanen was immune to wondering whether everyone else was getting ahead.<\/p>\n She remembers looking at former colleagues and friends on LinkedIn and seeing what appeared to be their \u201cperfect career paths\u201d, while she was once again starting at entry level.<\/p>\n \u201cYou look at that and you\u2019re like, \u2018Oh my God, they are so amazing\u2019,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd, you know, I\u2019m just here starting all over again.\u201d<\/p>\n But rather than focusing on the title attached to a job, Rasanen began asking a different question: what could she do with the opportunity she had?<\/p>\n \u201cThe curiosity is one thing, but I think that I have the ability to motivate myself and find the passion and find the purpose,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cSo when I\u2019ve been going back to the entry level, it\u2019s just like: \u2018Okay, so what can I do here? How can I make sure that I\u2019m valuable?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Part of that attitude, she believes, comes from her Scandinavian background, where job titles can carry less weight.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t even kind of know sometimes what\u2019s our title and we don\u2019t really care too much about the title,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s what you actually do.\u201d<\/p>\n That mindset eventually brought Rasanen to 50 Degrees North.<\/p>\n After working for large companies, she was craving something different.<\/p>\n \u201cI was totally fed up with big American giants and all that,\u201d she said. \u201cI wanted something small and more entrepreneurial because I always felt that that\u2019s in me.\u201d<\/p>\n She joined 50 Degrees North in sales when the team numbered just four people.<\/p>\n From there came sales management and leadership \u2014 Rasanen jokes there is \u201ca little dictator in me\u201d \u2014 before her finance background was suddenly needed again when problems emerged in the company\u2019s finance department.<\/p>\n \u201cI was like, well, I\u2019ll go and do it.\u201d<\/p>\n She spent around six years in finance before being encouraged to step up to CEO.<\/p>\n But even as she moved through senior roles, Rasanen resisted staying within the confines of a job description. She continued working at customer events and tour guiding, while also getting involved with everything from suppliers to pricing.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not picky,\u201d she said. \u201cI like the different things that I can do.\u201d<\/p>\n Rather than deliberately leaving one discipline behind for another, she said, \u201cother interesting opportunities have presented themselves\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I\u2019ve just been like, \u2018Oh, why not? I\u2019ll try that. I can always go back to finance or do something else if it doesn\u2019t look like I like it\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n It is, as Rasanen calls it, her \u201cnon-career plan\u201d.<\/p>\n Now in the CEO role, those career detours have become an advantage.<\/p>\n Rasanen said there was value not only in the work she performed in previous roles, but in observing how different organisations operated around her.<\/p>\n Her entry-level IT job in Australia, for example, was at Hewlett-Packard. Today, she can look back at how one of the world\u2019s biggest companies approached its processes and communication and consider what a much smaller organisation can learn from it.<\/p>\n \u201cSo it\u2019s not necessarily what I did there, but everything else that was around that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The same applies to the different industries and disciplines she has experienced.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the advantages of not having that kind of 30-plus years \u2014 although I sometimes kind of feel like, \u2018Oh my God, I\u2019m nothing, I\u2019m no one in this industry, I know nothing about this industry\u2019 \u2014 is the diversity,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not in this box thinking the same thoughts as everyone else. And there\u2019s different ways of doing things.\u201d<\/p>\n Her unconventional career has also given her exposure to work at almost every level.<\/p>\n \u201cSuddenly, you\u2019re in a position where you\u2019re like, okay, now everything that I\u2019ve learned and I\u2019ve done and I\u2019ve seen is actually useful now,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cEven the bad bosses and the good bosses and all the hard work and low-level stuff and high-level stuff.\u201d Learning from the bad bosses, too<\/p>\n Rasanen said she has been lucky to work with some \u201creally good leaders\u201d, but believes her experiences with bad leadership have ultimately proved important too.<\/p>\n Before experiencing it herself, she struggled to understand stories from people who had been bullied at work or had lost their passion because of a manager.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t understand why,\u201d she said. \u201cWhy can one person, like a boss, kill all that passion in you?\u201d<\/p>\n That changed when Rasanen experienced a leader who made her question herself.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s so easy to say until you\u2019ve experienced it, isn\u2019t it?\u201d she said. \u201cLike that someone really pushes you down and makes you doubt yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n The experience gave her a much clearer idea of the leader she did \u2014 and did not \u2014 want to become.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019ve experienced it, then you\u2019re like, okay, these are the traits I need to make sure I don\u2019t do.\u201d<\/p>\n For Rasanen, good leadership consequently starts with self-awareness rather than a prescribed management style.<\/p>\n \u201cTo know yourself makes you a good leader,\u201d she said, arguing there are many different types of effective leaders and not every leader will suit every employee.<\/p>\n Rasanen, for example, knows she is not suited to managing someone who wants to be closely directed or micromanaged.<\/p>\n She also doesn\u2019t want to surround herself with people who simply agree with her.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want yes people around me,\u201d she said. \u201cI want people who have the courage to say no or challenge me.\u201d<\/p>\n There is an irony to Rasanen\u2019s story. From the outside, moving from entry-level roles to the CEO of a travel company looks very much like a successful career trajectory. \u201cI don\u2019t feel that I have any career,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m just curious and I\u2019m doing things that I\u2019m just interested in.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI have never planned a career. The only plan that I\u2019ve ever had is just to do something that I really like.\u201d<\/p>\n Perhaps that is what makes Rasanen\u2019s path particularly interesting. She has reached the top of the ladder without spending her working life staring at the next rung.<\/p>\n Instead, she kept looking sideways \u2014 at what interested her, what she could learn and where she could be useful.<\/p>\n And eventually, all those sideways steps added up.<\/p>\nStarting again while everyone else moves up<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"Mari](\"https:\/\/travelweekly.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/mari-rasanen-21100_pp-scaled.jpg\"\/)
![\"Mari](\"https:\/\/travelweekly.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/mari-rasanen-21100_pp-scaled.jpg\")
From sales to the CEO seat<\/strong><\/h3>\n
The skills you pick up sideways<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\u201cI feel that I need all of them every single day.\u201d<\/p>\nNot all of those lessons were comfortable.<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Looking sideways instead of up<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Rasanen herself isn\u2019t so convinced.<\/p>\n
![\"Women](\"https:\/\/travelweekly.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/WIT-26-SPONSOR-BLOCK-0909-1-scaled.jpg\"\/)
![\"Women](\"https:\/\/travelweekly.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/WIT-26-SPONSOR-BLOCK-0909-1-scaled.jpg\")
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