I recently made the decision to leave my position as President and CEO.
It wasn’t because I didn’t like the job. I really did. Over the past seven and a half years, I built my leadership team, worked with them to develop our growth strategy, and helped transform the culture into a performance-based team focused on teamwork and delivering an outstanding customer experience. Everything was going well.
And yet, something was missing.
I realized that I felt the need for more. I felt stagnated. It’s a strange feeling. I had built a team I trusted, led an organization I liked, and yet I wasn’t satisfied. Then it hit me: I’m not built to be satisfied. I’m built to learn, to be challenged, and to grow, both personally and professionally.
I knew I needed to make a change.
I spoke to my wife about it. I told her I needed more. She asked me what I wanted. I wasn’t sure. I just knew I wanted a bigger challenge, to make a difference, and to keep learning.
So, I wrote my resignation letter. It sat in my drafts for two weeks. This was the hardest decision I’ve ever made. Every other job I’d left had problems or issues I wanted to escape, or I was going to a much better opportunity. This one was different. There was nothing wrong with it. Many people would have killed to have this job. And yet here I was, contemplating quitting.
One Friday evening around 6:30, I hit send. I took the chance. I bet on myself.
This post is about finding your why, finding your happiness, and taking your shot.
When I told a colleague what I was doing and why, he quoted something his father always told him. It stuck with me. It comes from Matthew 7:13-14: “Go through the narrow gate, it will bring you purpose, because the wide gate is easier but will also lead to destruction.”
I’m heading through the narrow gate. Wish me the best.
Let me know if you’ve ever had to make a life changing decision and bet on yourself or am contemplating one.
My violin teacher says, take the hardest passage in the piece you are playing and figure out how to make it even harder. If you master that, make it harder still. By doing that, when you perform the passage as written it will be easy.
We need to challenge ourselves constantly, because that is the only way to grow. Simply doing the same thing over and over, or reverting to the past, leads to stagnation, fear, and lots of things today's world finds itself mired in.
I dont mind at all, I do not own the content of the Bible, nobody does. Its meant to be shared and inspire. I am grateful that you found positivity in it.