Letting Go

I guess I was destined for a career in sales. You know the saying, “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”. My 84 year-old Dad has been in the Safety Equipment industry most of his life, and today he is still selling, still getting out calling on customers, and still excited to get every sale.

I’ve been blessed and fortunate in my career – working with great people, working for great companies – and I was happy and loved what I was doing for the longest time. Something started shifting for me though. If I had to pinpoint it to a single event, I think I would have to say around 2006 reading Robert Kiyosaki’s book, “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” started planting the seeds of desire to take control of my work life, my future.   Truth be told I was an “employee” – trading my time for money. The great thing about sales is you do have the ability to generate a nice upside when you are successful, nevertheless, I had a job – and I wanted more, I wanted Freedom. I wanted to feel like my work mattered, that it served a bigger purpose.

I grew up with “the Poor Dad”. I was told go to school, get a good job, work hard, stay with the same company until you retire and you will be successful.   In my parents generation this seemed to “work”. For me I felt like the hamster on the wheel – running faster and faster and unable to get off.

A lot has happened since 2006 in my life – 3 jobs, 8 significant deaths in my family, lots of personal growth opportunities, work successes and failures, and more insights, oh and did I mention I turned 50? I had made a decision that 2015 would be the year I’d start my own business. I was still fearful of leaving my job. The stars aligned though – and June 15^th was day 1 on this new journey.

My partner and I sat down and did the assessment on making the move – what are the advantages and disadvantages? The advantages list was huge, filled with opportunity and excitement. The disadvantages list only had a couple of items on it – one of course was “it won’t work out”.   This short list was all fear based, and the worse case scenario would be I’d have to get another job. I’m choosing opportunity and excitement. For the next year I’m taking the leap of faith and building a business. I’ll be blogging about my journey, process, and insights along the way.

I’ll end with a couple of questions – Are you happy with your work life? If not – what’s holding you back?

Rich Dad Poor Dad: What The Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!