I recall the day I told my boss at my corporate job that I would be leaving because my husband and I were starting a boat dealership.
He was alarmed to say the least and gave me a look of deep concern as he stood up to close his office door to talk me out of my silly plan.
He was a Vice-President in our large organization. He was well respected by his peers. He had a big house and nice car, two sons and a wife who had the privilege of staying home. In his mind, everyone should aspire to what he had achieved.
My day to day experience working a corporate job was not so rosy. I hated my cubicle. I hated being at the whims of my boss. He would often take golf outings with his subordinates leaving me to do a large chunk of their work while they got the credit for it. Me, with no college education doing the work of a VP!
I hated it so much I would often be in the bathroom having panic attacks. I would squeeze every second I could out of my lunch hour to avoid my cubicle.
I remember my last day. I put the top down on my convertible and took the country roads home. I could breath.
I was scared about my decision. But not panic-attack in the bathroom level. It was a healthy dose of fear. The kind of fear that taught me to listen to my intuition. The kind of fear that says proceed with caution but keep going.
It took a lot of guts to start something from scratch with no experience running a business. A lot of people thought we were crazy. But that is the kind of crazy it takes if you are going to stick your neck out and go against the grain.
I still have moments of anxiety when making tough decisions. But they are my decisions.
I’m glad I took the chance.
