Happy anniversary to me!

One year ago today, I walked into my place of employment and announced to my boss I was all done. I offered the standard 2 weeks notice,but we came to a mutual agreement that for all intensive purposes, there was no point dragging out the end so I passed in my security card and other paraphernalia and was escorted out 5 minutes later.

I had known since about the day I started at that company that it was not going to be a long term career. It did, however, serve a few good purposes. I had packed up a lucrative growing IT consulting business earlier to join a team full time on a dot-com startup, whose timing was terrible as it turned out. I was lucky to walk away with my shirt and a few bucks, which is more than I can say for those that lingered on. We packed up our life in Halifax to move to this area, and I decided that for the time being, a steady job might be a nice change of pace.

I have no complaints about the place I worked (although when I was there I had a few that now seem trivial), but I knew from the time I started that corporate life wasn’t for me. I did learn alot there, was in a few different positions and roles and saw the printing industry from a different perspective. However, I started making my exit strategy a long time before leaving, and worked on building this business up. The time came when I had contracts in hand and needed the time to get them done, so I made the (scary) leap once again.

I should explain that ‘again’ part, I did this once before when I left a great place to work for no other reason than I needed more money and the only apparent way that was going to happen was to be self-employed. That was when I started the lucrative consulting business I mentioned two paragraphs back. I really liked the job I had and the people I worked for in that case, but with a new baby at that time and no other family income, the income had to increase.

This time was different though. This wasn’t as much about money as it was about saving my soul from corporate hell. I knew a year ago when I quit it was the right direction for my life and have had no regrets. Financially I could have been better prepared, however with a fixed salary in the lower-middle class bracket for Nova Scotia, waiting for the right time with a fat savings account could have been a long way off. In the end I didn’t end up making a killing or anything the first year but we survived well enough. More importantly the groundwork has been laid and business is building at a sure and steady pace.

I’ve been at this place before, eight years ago to be exact. Along came the promise of millions from an IPO as a founding partner in a dot-com, a whole adventure unto itself that, while not ending up with much of any money, gave me great experiences and stories. This time however, I hope I’ve gained the wisdom to appreciate the business, work and life I already have enough to not be swayed off track.