How to leave your job? — Step 1
Hey team! As promised I am going to bear all and answer the question I’ve been getting for a while which is…..How exactly does one go about leaving their job?
Well for starters, it isn’t a rushed decision. The very first & pertinent step I took would have been taken long in advance! Perhaps just about five years in advance. Anyways, lets cut to the chase…the answer is to:
READ!!!!!
Easily said but not as always easily accomplished. Trust me. I know! Six years ago I never read. However I was going to get married and I needed to digest some very important books to get prepared and I had to find a way. Say hello to Audible!!! On September 20th 2012 I downloaded my first Audiobook, “His Needs, Her Needs”.
It turned out to be an excellent read and a definite must read for anyone in a relationship. But what shocked me, was the rate at which I was able to finish the book! I never finished a book before in my adult life but I completed this book in less than 3 days! I would just play it during travel or idle time and presto!! I was impressed with this new ability to consume material that I came up with a plan….to alternate between a book for fun, like a novel, and a book for knowledge (although I must confess it doesn’t always work this way!!! Some novels are really addictive!) If I exclude all the reading I did to get my law degree then I would have consumed close to 100 audiobooks over the last 5 years.
What was really important though is that 3rd book I downloaded! The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Persons by Stephen R. Covey. That book asked me some really important questions. And it was in answering those questions my life begin to change!
Question: Where do I want to be at age 60?
I started looking around at some of the examples around me. A 60 year turbine engineer flew down to Trinidad to help us fix a turbine and together we toiled in the hot sun and late nights….but that is not what I wanted to do at age 60! Being directed to leave your family for months at a time to where your family could not follow was not for me. I began to look at upper management and decided that this too was not for me (I will not say why because these are people I like and they are still in that position). I would say that I was in my position for too long as well and having my trajectory stunted by ill intent and poorly conceived reasons began to take it’s toll on me. I sat down with my Dad and asked about the history of his career and what advice he would have given himself. (It’s ironic how many similar hurdles we’d share and this also greatly enabled me to choose a different path.) Together with my wife I sat down and wrote out a long term vision for myself…..Ooops, that’s step two!
Back to Step One. The book gave me what you would call a “Paradigm shift”. That’s a nice phrase that means to adjust your way of thinking. And that’s what reading does, it adjusts your way of thought. You always think you know best until you find a better way. Reading exposes you to better ways.
So you want to leave your job? Then my question would be to you….how much time do you invest in yourself reading? If you don’t read… Don’t Quit! You are not prepared and you would fail. A life of entrepreneurship is not all gloss and you need to be prepared to make the correct decisions at the correct time which requires much correct information and correct character!
GO READ!!!!! And start with that seven habits book while you’re at it. :-)