Take the Risks and Make the Change
I spent the better part of last month renegotiating my salary and title with my current employer and basically threatening to leave to start my own companies. I’ve promised my CEO all along that I would never leave his company to go work for another employer - only that I would create my own business(es). That is absolutely true. While him and the President of our company listened to me, they also reminded me (frequently) how bad the economy was and how may businesses are failing these days. Their attempts to instill fear in me were not nearly as successful as my ability to instill a fear of their future without me.
Then, in the midst of another closed door debate, the real question came from the CEO: So what happens if you leave here and then find out that things do not go as expected with your business? “What if you fail?” My reply was very quick and very concise; If I find out that things aren’t going as I planned, I am confident that I could return to a salaried position making AT LEAST as much as I am making today. There was a measurable pause as the CEO sat stunned. Finally he offer, “I guess you’ve thought about that already then.” Indeed.
Earlier today I spoke with a friend from Texas by phone. He lives in a small town with a lot of friction that’s grinding away at him. His job isn’t exactly prestigious. His father-in law is financial king of the county. For some reason, they haven’t been able to get pregnant after three plus years of marriage. His wife, and her mother, have lived in this small Texas town their entire life. But he wants to move three hours away to Austin. She’s not so sure she wants to leave.
So I asked him the same question this morning; What the worst that could happen if you both get to Austin and six weeks, six months or six years later you realize it was a mistake? “We could always go back.” Absolutely. Almost nothing we do, on a day-to-day basis is irreversible. There are so few “real” risks we take but yet we build them up to major life threatening, life altering risks. Changes, like moving away from family and friends to discover new and different cities/towns/people/parishes will certainly be life altering, but almost never life threatening.
What is the change you are fearful of? What prevents you from changing jobs, changing towns or taking that class to learn whatever it was you’ve always wanted to learn? What’s the worst that could happen, and if it does happen, can you reverse course without loosing ground? Probably.
Only one way to find out.
-pjc