A brief summary of my 27-year career as told in single words and brief phrases:
Quit.
Quit.
Quit.
Quit.
Fired.
Quit.
Quit.
Started a company.
Starting a company.
You know when it got interesting? Do you know when it stopped being a list of jobs and started being a career? Yes, of course you do. The day that I got fired was the wake-up call that changed everything. That day, motivated by my responsibility to provide for a young family and in spite of my lack of self-awareness, I took responsibility for my career for the first time.
I had a 7-week severance and I landed a new job in six. (Thank you, Cathy Earley!) And it wasn’t just a job; it was the first role that made it clear that there was a path for my interests and abilities. Getting fired and then hired into that role is why I could eventually start my own company. It’s why I am now ready to help get another new venture off the ground.
Remember Ryan Bingham in Up in the Air?
“Anybody who ever built an empire, or changed the world, sat where you are now. And it’s because they sat there that they were able to do it.”
A terrible cliche. A pat line, woefully inadequate to ease the pain of a person just fired from a job.
He also happened to be right.
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