For the past couple of days, I’ve had the nonpareil pleasure of dropping the following bomb in the course of normal conversation:
“So, I quit my job.”
Reactions range from nonplussed shock to unfased approval to jealousy-tinged joy to the expectance of a punchline, because that’s a joke, right? No, I’m serious. In two weeks, I will leave my company after 5 1/2 years of fiercely loyal service.
5 1/2 years! Long enough to see the company triple in size and append numerous multinational companies to the client list. Long enough to have written well over a dozen user manuals about various products, integrations, and customizations. Long enough that I have seen co-workers visibly age.
I accepted a new job at a start-up in Boston, not far from where I am now. The start-up will inevitably involve more work and more stress. It could crash and burn within a year, and I will be jobless and ruing the day that I traded in my cushy job for breakneck instability.
But I am young, and any investor will advise you to take risks when you are young. Because this start-up could crash and burn, but it also could be sold for a bizillion dollars. Then I could retire, buy a mountain villa, gather an army of resident felines, and spend my days as a cat blogger.
For many years, the following quote by Mark Twain was mandatory for impassioned valedictorians and graduation speakers: “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the tradewinds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
I don’t think anyone has ever encouraged me towards real risk. Risk is not a suitable venture for females with middle-class upbringings and no marketable skills other than a knack for writing. In fact, risk isn’t encouraged these days unless someone can tolerate the risk, which means that it’s not really a risk in the first place.
Me quitting my job to take a new job at a start-up isn’t a risk. Me quitting my job to become the next Mark Twain… that’s a risk.
