Before I became an entrepreneur, I worked in corporate for 3 different companies.
When I was laid off from my first job as a software engineer, I started using recruiters to find my next position. And, surprise, I was recruited to be a recruiter! Not a career I had ever considered but it sounded like the perfect blend for me. I could still use my technical background without having to be a heads-down coder anymore! Heaven.
After learning how to recruit and then becoming the top recruiter in the information technology division of the company I worked for, I found myself getting bored. It seemed like what was ahead was more of the same and I was starting to burn out. I decided I needed to take my newly-honed sales skills out of a service-based industry and sell a product instead.
I joined a large software company and pretty quickly became their top sales rep.
In year three, I started feeling the same sense of “is this all there is?”
I was not fulfilled. I started looking internally for a new role. Maybe I could sell a different product. I knew that would only be a short-term solution. The other option was to move into management, but I still enjoyed selling too much to abandon it.
Besides, I realized that I missed recruiting. In recruiting, I loved the idea of helping someone move out of a role they were miserable in and into a role that was more satisfying. I also loved talking with companies of all sizes about how technology was transforming their businesses and that I was helping them build their tech teams as part of their transformation.
Door #3: Becoming My Own Boss
I decided to call my old boss. My thought was that I would come back to work for the company I had left. I was a bit nervous to go back into a straight commission role because the economy was in the dumper and the thought of leaving behind a secure paycheck weighed on me.
He didn’t indulge my financial fears. Instead, he said something even crazier.
Why don’t we go into business together? Forget working for someone else, work for yourself.
Become my own boss???
That was never something I had considered. I just figured I would always be working for someone else.
But when he suggested this idea, I felt a leap on the inside. I knew that I had to open Door #3 and see what the view looked like on the other side.
And all I can say is that once I walked through I never (OK, almost never) looked back.
Have you been thinking about becoming your own boss? Do you wonder if Door #3 might be the door for you? Then let’s get on a call and talk it through. You can ask me anything about what it might take to start a business.
