Changes

April 6th, 2006

I quit my job last week. It was a long time coming; the work I had been doing was starting to wear me down.

At school, I’ve been exposed to presentations on entrepreneurship as well as the marketing angle on the technology life cycle. Very fascinating stuff. You can practically draw a solid line between the innovators and the entrepreneurs, two groups of people that try to gain an advantage in the market with different approaches than what already exist. They are the risk-takers.

Contrast that with my old company, where our target market were customers that refused to take risks with technology. Instead of trying to innovate, these customers were pragmatic or conservative with their choice of backoffice systems. They required lots of research and needed the backing of the industry in order to make a decision. Nothing wrong with that, since that’s the vast majority of the marketplace. But that was where my beliefs and my former company did not mesh.

The good news was that I had a job lined up to do exactly what I wanted to be doing — working with innovators and startup folks. It’s been a little busy making the change. Cash flow, health insurance, taxes, all that stuff. Ironically, the worst part about the job change was leaving my old boss with one day’s notice. The last time I left a job with less than 2 weeks notice was when I was 16. So I thought he deserved better than that. At the same time, I’ve been taught some hard lessons about job changes, and so when it came to a chance to jump at an opportunity to (a) do what I’ve been wanted to do, and (b) help the family’s bottom line, the decision was no contest.

That was last Friday, and it’s been busy at hell ever since. Which to me is a good thing. If you’re not scrapping, you’re too comfortable. It’s also part of what makes risk-takers so fun to work with If you want something, you have to go get it. Be the first in line. Make mistakes. Learn from them. Take a chance, dammit!

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