Wow, I’m doing it! After 11.5 years of working at Microsoft, I’m leaving the corporate world and on my way to build my coaching and consulting business full time. I’m entering the unknown territory of the entrepreneurship, which feels both scary and exciting (one more than the other, depending on the moment).
This is not about jumping from a cliff, waking up one day and saying, “That’s it! I’ve had enough!” I must say, this has been a loooong journey. A journey that involved imagining a lot of different possibilities, testing all sorts of waters, talking to many people, bravely “going for it” and then quickly running back to safety, dreaming, fearing… lots of back and forth. But at the end, the passion won over the fear.
I’ve heard people saying that they hesitate about going for a big change, because that would imply that whatever they’ve done so far didn’t work, and therefore was a failure. Are you kidding me? All I’ve done in life brought me to this place. All the moments where I felt brilliant, humbled, frustrated, inspired, lost, energized, and all the people I’ve met and talked to over the years gave me a better sense of who I can and want to be in the world. So, I’m definitely planning on bringing and using all that worked, giving it a new spin, and watching to see what happens.
A dear friend of mine has compared this leap to “taking the red pill”, a reference to The Matrix movie. You may remember Morpheus offering Neo to choose between the blue and the red pill. The blue was about living in the illusion and red about embracing the truth of reality. I know what I want to do, and I can choose either to ignore it and surrender to the dreads of uncertainty that would give me plenty of reasons to stay and keep the status quo, or to just go for the truth, knowing that it may be uncomfortable at times, maybe even painful. And I know this is not a one-time deal. I’ll most likely have to make that choice every day as obstacles arise, as I discover parts of what I currently don’t even know that I don’t know.
Wish me luck! And I’ll make sure to send you a postcard from all the places this journey will take me to.
Hi Henrieta,
ReplyDeleteWhile most of us think, talk, think more, talk more but never take the plunge and follow our passion, you have done it. It takes lot of courage. It is not about success or failure and certainly not about the end goal. You are on a journey. You have carved your path with your dedication and hardwork. You will do just fine.
Best wishes.