Bang! You’re fired. You quit. Whatever. Forced reboot. What would you do?
It’s an important question I think everyone — not just those unhappy with their career — should be asking themselves. If you had to start over, what would make you happy? What would make you successful?
I need more fingers to count all the times just in the past few days I’ve run into someone talking about what they’d like to be doing vs what they currently are. Most of them were referring to a job they didn’t like. But businesses can end up in the same spot. You get caught up in client work and wander away from what makes you happy and what makes you successful. (Success isn’t always measured by income.)
For me, it’s a tough question. I end up thinking through whether or not I like being a developer (I do) or co-running a small business (I do.) I look at the type of work we’re doing, the message we’re creating, and the strategy we’re chasing. I look at how much time we spend doing vs talking. How much time we spend exploring new stuff vs implementing old. How much we’re making vs spending. And, maybe even most of all, I look at how much stress I’m taking to sleep each night.
But if you ignore all that, and just ask yourself what you’d be doing if you had to start over, you get a much better read on whether you’re in the right spot.
I’d blog and do strategic [intertubes] consulting. I’d build the strategies I’m recommending. I’d look for value propositions that build residual income to keep from falling into eat what you kill mode. I’d reserve 30% of my time for exploratory work. I’d pursue only clients that “get it.” I’d try to find others better than me in each aspect of what I do, and work with them. We (me and my better than me’s) would build websites that returned things.
I think I’m close. I definitely know where I’m off. How about you?
5 Responses to “Auditing the manner in which you roll”
I’m not there yet. I value the income part too much. Some day – hopefully sooner than later.
Over the past 12 months I went through this process. I realized that I never should have taken the corporate gig when leaving school almost 7 years ago. I figured out how long the money would last us without my income, tossed it in the air, and we’ll see where the chips fall.
Hopefully the gods of the InterWeb will see fit to provide for me along the way. It’s frightening and amazing to be in a world where I actually want to work on what’s in front of me day-to-day.
This is a great situation to ponder. I believe the reality for me is that with my attention span and desire to do numerous things – even ones I do not excel – it is impossible to do that “ONE” thing that is “ideal”. As such, I have found a skill that enables me to dabble in those many “ONE” things for a few weeks only to see that they are actually not that fun, nor are they sustainable, and thus, I quickly revert to what I excel and make good money doing (btw, I love this game I call search marketing…the true reality is though, I do use $$$ as “points” in an effort to keep score – with myself, not necessarily others, but “score” nonetheless).
I did the corporate gig for some years and am sure (not bragging, but sure) I was the youngest person at both Fortune 500 companies I worked for with the highest position at the time. I excelled there but really for what – I just wanted to be the best. I did not climb the ladder…I made HR enable me to vault steps…frankly, I was a HR pain in the ass. Then I realized, it is only for salary, some options (which tanked) and killer hours for the next rung.
When I quit…1 week after a 50% ($27,000) raise at one job, my dad thought I was nuts. When I left $100,000 salary, he really thought I had lost it, but now, I know he smiles. In the end (to date at least), I got lucky…more money and more time. But, I will advise this, if you can time your end at the place you leave, you will be better off as you will be able to use it to start your new beginning.
Now I gotta end … my video game and a few points await. Plus, I am going tangent……..
I’d like to have one, big project to work on. I currently have 19 open projects, and it’s tough to provide adequate focus on each one.
I’d love to get this phone call: “Hey, this is the Library of Congress. We need a content management system. We figure it’ll take two years, and we’ve budgeted $4 million.”
I know I’m more than a little late commenting to be taken seriously, but that’s a side effect of how I’m currently rolling out of alignment, myself.
Nice post. You’ve got an uncanny knack for putting into words what I’ve got rolling around in my own mind, but just haven’t committed the time to actually thinking about it.
It sure sounds a lot like you want to be Google, Aa. Then again, it’s probably just me latching on to the piece about 30% exploration. That’s a big part of what makes our industry fun and exciting for me – the what’s next?
I know there’s more to say, but it’s late/early and it’s not making it from frontal lobe to keyboard.