Sometimes I feel a little crazy. Today is one of those days.
About 3 years ago now I moved from Australia to Canada. The reasons for the move were probably not that smart (A girl, not the one I’m with today…) and at the time I felt that I was giving up a lot of things which i had worked very hard to get. This all made me a little sour (“a little” might be an understatement). Today I’m flying to Mexico for 5 days, and then headed to California for another 6 where we’ll be staying with some of my partners family in LA, only to end the trip with some “business” in the Bay area which involves meeting up with some very talented people who I’m very lucky to be working with.
Why do I feel crazy? I feel crazy because before I moved to Canada I felt like things were looking good for me in Australia. I was running a small business, we were making a small profit and I we were getting well known for the work we did. I was 22. When I moved, all that went away and I took up a job for 50k / year as a Junior Project Manager and lived in a basement apartment. It was a pretty significant pay cut, not to mention loss of freedom. It felt like a huge step backwards.
When I look back at the last few years I realize there is no way in the world I could have ever got to where I am today if I had not moved. Don’t get me wrong living in Australia, the amazing education of TAFE (seriously, I’m not Joking…TAFE is great despite what some would say) and work I did while self employed prepared me for what I’m doing today, however Australia is pretty behind, compared to the opportunity in the IT industry that I’ve seen since I left.
Today I’m 25 back on the self employment path. In my last job I made the title of Director, something I thought I wouldn’t be able to do given my age (Truth is I do try hide my age a lot, its normally a surprise to people when they find it out). The big thing this promotion told me was that I would never be happy until I was back in the creators seat. Its not about money. So, i resigned and started up a company. Now I have a great business partner, a great product (Plug: Verelo website monitoring) that is only getting better every day, and more people interested in working with us than ever before. I’m back to enjoying the freedom of self employment but this time all the more aware of the discipline, from past experience, that it will take to keep things on track.
So again, why do I feel crazy? Simply because this is not what I expected. You turn one corner, look down the path and go “uh this looks bad” only to keep walking and find there is something worth looking for at the end. Whats the moral to the story? I guess you could say its “take risks” and “be persistent”. Risks that open up doors are always good, and if you don’t see something through to the end you’re wasting everyone’s time (including your own).
“The problem with the Internet startup craze isn’t that too many people are starting companies; it’s that too many people aren’t sticking with it.” Steve Jobs