A Start Up Story

After three years working as a digital consultant, then head of consultancy, for a global digital agency, I was ready for a change.

It was no thunderbolt moment. Instead it crept up on me. I had been at the place for three years, had been promoted every six to nine months, was given opportunities to try different roles and even work in different countries. The work was varied, high-pressure but not too high-pressure, and the people I got to work with on a daily basis were incredible.

I loved my job. There was nothing not to love. Right?

The real answer was more like ‘yeh, I guess I kind of love it. Sort of.’

I was starting to have a nagging feeling in the back of my head as I approached 30. You know, the one that starts pushing you towards reading books that tell you how to find your passion, live a life worth living, escape the endless feeling of drudgery, blah, blah blah. All those books that I used to scoff at. Only sad and desperate people read those kind of books, I used to say. And then all of a sudden I found myself gravitating towards them.

It wasn’t just that. Many people have spoken of Sunday dread: that ‘fuck, tomorrow’s Monday’ feeling. But I was starting to feel dread every morning. I found myself getting to work later and later. At work itself, simple tasks would take me forever to complete; I became highly-skilled in making one activity take around four times longer than necessary.

I hated feeling this way; I felt my entire personality drifting away, and began to feel guilty that not only did this behaviour affect me, it also affected my team. It wasn’t fair on anyone, and something needed to change.

It’s funny then, that, right around the same time, I was approached by an old boss with an offer to try something new. A new and challenging role; a new industry; a new type of organisation. Maybe the universe heard me rustling those self-help book pages and chucked me a bone? Or, you know, maybe it was a happy coincidence.

Either way, it didn’t take me too long to say yes. I knew this was the opportunity I was waiting for, and I grabbed it with both hands. And after that, came the fear. Am I making the right decision? What if I fail? What if I let my boss, my team, myself down?

All these questions and fears knocked around in my head as I prepared to leave my job and embark on the new adventure. I decided to start this blog so that I could capture these exciting, terrifying feelings, process them, and maybe even one day look back and see how far I’ve come.

So, this is it.

My running leap of faith, into the unknown.

Wish me luck.