After my keynote session last week in New Hampshire, I did a book signing. One of the people that sat right up front came by to get a copy of the book. She had the biggest smile on her face as she shared why she connected with my story so much. “We’ve had some health scares so I’m retiring early. My husband and I are going on a road trip.” I gave her my card and told her to call me before choosing a route from the East to the West coast. “I have all my van life roadtrip notes still,” I said with a smile.
This isn’t the first time someone has come up to me with a big dream after a session. Often, their idea is still just that - a dream. Imaginary. “I’ve been thinking,” they say with hesitation. Then, the big reveal of their very own dream. People have shared all kinds of things with me: RV life, traveling the world, sometimes a dream I’ve never considered before like running an animal sanctuary.
No matter what the dream, I am excited for them. I know how hard it is to share your wild, audacious ideas out loud. How brave you have to be to say “I want to take a risk” in a world that makes everyone crave security. Been there. I was scared as hell to take the leap to start Three Ears Media. See, entrepreneurship wasn’t the actual plan. I was going to be in the C-suite of some big company, or at least that’s what I told myself when I was 22.
In hindsight, I can see that running my own business is where I was meant to be. It was always the first thing I imagined doing when my job security was questionable in corporate America. The first time I got laid off, I filed the paperwork to start a company. Three days later, I got a job offer and submitted the paperwork to dissolve my LLC. I had to throw away 500 business cards when they arrived a week later.
It was almost 6 years before I would consider that dream again. I was caregiving for my mom and working for a toxic manager. After a particularly harsh feedback session that made me cry, I decided to tackle my dream instead of a job search. I angrily stomped into the living room where my mom was perched watching the Real Housewives of a city I still can’t remember and said, “I’m quitting my job and starting a company.” She replied, “no, you’re not.”
This was a good job on paper. Good benefits and pay. My mom was an accountant. She was doing risk math and this was not in the formula. It was not good timing at all. I just bought a house. She made the case that I should not do this very clear. “Just take an afternoon to think,” she said.
At any other time of my life, my mom telling me not to do something would have made me quit. Not that day. I’m not sure if it was delirium from weeks of 24/7 caregiving, frustration, or anger that fueled my leap. But I left. That conversation was on a Thursday. On Monday, I gave two weeks' notice. No business plan. No website. No company name. Two weeks later, I was in Las Vegas on stage at SourceCon and told everyone I was starting a company named after two dogs with four ears. (That’s a true story, not a typo. I didn’t take the time to stress this name choice.)
It would be irresponsible to sit here and tell you to throw two fingers of your choice at the boss and leave your job forever today. The world is full of uncertainty, even with the wave of hope I felt on Tuesday. But here’s what I am going to say: there’s no risk more worth taking than the one for your own dreams.
No matter how you get there – whether the timeline to start is chosen for you by a layoff, caregiving, or some other kind of uncertainty – it’s worth answering your own questions about what you want in this world. It is important to take the leaps for what you want deep inside your gut. I think we both know that nothing is guaranteed except the next wave of uncertainty.
